The FWC's general manager is conducting a "major investigation" into a Health Services Union branch in Victoria, which is continuing after the former Registered Organisations Commission launched it about two years ago.
An accountancy firm and its principal must pay penalties totalling almost $70,000 for failing to comply with FWO notices to produce documents linked to to its client's "grossly inadequate" employee record-keeping.
Closing Loopholes 2 provisions that substantially increase penalties for breaching the Fair Work Act should prompt employers to consider boosting their investment in payroll systems and checking compliance, Adelaide University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart says.
The Federal Court has flayed the Republic of Italy for failing to heed Australian IR laws in its local consulates and has ordered it to pay a $94,000 fine, $7500 compensation and indemnity costs to an administrative employee after it failed to pay him annual leave loading for six years, to keep records in English and to produce the records on demand.
The first enforceable undertaking under the FWC's restored registered organisations powers provides for a union to further train its officers on the conduct of elections.
The Federal Court has fined the AWU almost $300,000 for 27,143 breaches of registered organisations laws, including failing to keep accurate membership records for nine years until 2017.
A leading IR legal expert says Victoria's selection as host jurisdiction for a harmonised labour hire licensing scheme and National Labour Hire Regulator is a "fitting reflection" of its contribution in recent years, but the industry peak body has expressed disappointment and surprise.
A court has issued rare orders compelling a former economics professor to face FWO questions under oath about his capacity to pay penalties and compensation arising from underpayment judgments handed down in 2019 and 2020.
A business that knowingly and repeatedly breached labour hire licensing laws has been fined more than $600,000, which is believed to be the highest in Australian labour hire law history.