After providing $150,000 to settle an underpayments claim brought by five fruit pickers last year, labour hire company Agri Labour Australia is facing a new claim from 26 seasonal workers alleging they were short-paid more than $200,000.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched the first legal action using new reverse onus of proof provisions that require employers to disprove underpayment claims if they have not kept adequate records.
The Federal Circuit Court has fined a former 7-Eleven operator more than $154,000 for using a cash-back scheme to circumvent a biometric payroll system introduced by head office to stamp out underpayments.
A culture of "defiant non-compliance" has emerged in high-risk sectors of the economy who pay "black market rates", according to former Fair Work Ombudsman, Natalie James.
The push to criminalise so-called "wage theft" by employers might be a less effective deterrent than an increased number of civil prosecutions, according to a new academic paper.
As United Voice seeks to quash a 2007 "zombie" agreement at Justin Hemmes' Merivale hospitality company on the basis that workers would be better off under the award, the FWO says it found no "non-compliance issues" when it audited the company in May.
The gender pay gap has dropped from 24.7% to 21.3% over the past five years but many companies are still harbouring an "action gap", with policies in place but no accountability for implementing them, says the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Report confirms FWO needs our help: McManus; Watson has status of judge, but isn't one for tax purposes: AAT; Axe 12% target, commission PC to assess super adequacy, says report.
A new body should be established outside the FWO to exclusively address underpayments to temporary visa holders, argue the authors of a report which found that less than 2% of more than 2000 migrant workers surveyed successfully recouped all their unpaid wages through existing channels.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has begun the first proceedings using tougher new provisions relating to providing false and misleading documents during an investigation, Senate Estimates hearings have been told this week.
