A law firm has launched the first major underpayment class action against a private Australian university, it claims, over the alleged short-changing of casual academics.
A meat union delegate who has had hundreds of thousands of dollars in employer penalties paid into his union's coffers has added almost $90,000 more to his tally, this time from Woolworths.
The FWC has temporarily increased the vehicle-related allowances in the SCHADS and aged care awards to compensate workers for the fuel price surge from the Middle East conflict, but has declined to make the change in 39 other awards.
The FWC will insert a working from home term in the clerical award that provides for employees to request WFH arrangements, but it has found no basis for a "major regulatory intervention" to compel employers to act.
The FWC has upheld a coal mining company's right to stop accrual of annual leave for employees when they take industrial action or are locked out, in a decision with potential implications for the wider industry.
The first test case for the delegates' rights provisions legislated by the Albanese Government is set to be heard in the Federal Court in Brisbane next week.
In the first fully contested Federal Court case to consider new s-xual harassment protections in the Fair Work Act, a judge has relied heavily on a FIFO apprentice's dinnertime revelation to her parents that her supervisor asked her for a "bl-w job" to find he s-xually harassed her.
A former FWO chief counsel-turned judge has taken an axe to the workplace regulator's belief in penalties as a general deterrent, expressing astonishment at its "staggering" pursuit of a $21,000 fine against an employer who quickly coughed up a $976 underpayment once a junior worker provided proof of their age.
A Federal Court majority has quashed a finding that the Black Coal Award requires BHP's Operations Services in-house labour hire arm to give its workforce two common public holidays off each year, and to cap shifts at 10 hours unless most employees agree to additional hours at overtime rates.
Speakers at an IR conference have emphasised the importance of early, transparent consultations when introducing automation and AI-related change, but a lawyer says locking into a formal process too soon is risky.
