FWC President Iain Ross has asked a full bench to review abandonment of employment clauses in six modern awards after a recent ruling that employers must take the "additional step" of ending the employment relationship when a worker walks off the job.
Anglo Coal is facing a seven-figure backpayment, after the High Court refused to grant it special leave to appeal a finding that a subsidiary breached its enterprise agreement by failing to pay employees correctly when they cashed-out personal/carer's leave.
Leading employment law practitioners have predicted it is only a matter of time before Australia sees a test case similar to UK's recent landmark Uber decision which found drivers were employees, not contractors.
The FWO has used accessorial liability provisions to secure substantial penalties across the chain of command of a frozen yoghurt franchise responsible for underpaying four overseas workers.
A court has refused a Fair Entitlements Guarantee payment to an estranged spouse who was working for her husband when his business collapsed but claimed her marriage effectively ended after he took a second wife two years ago.
A cleaning company that shamelessly exploited a vulnerable workforce made "inept attempts” to avoid the legal consequences when it claimed its employees were independent contractors, the Federal Court has found.
A court has fined the operators of a restaurant chain almost $300,000 and ordered an independent audit of their IR practices after they used their own "independent market research" to justify underpayments.
A contractor "knowingly involved" in underpaying vulnerable supermarket trolley collectors and a subcontractor who "deliberately" produced false payment records and underpaid employees have been fined more than $90,000 by the Federal Court.
A sales manager who alleged she was sacked for seeking compassionate leave after the death of her grandfather has had her adverse action claim dismissed because she failed to provide sufficient proof for the request.
The Federal Court has ruled that an Anglo Coal subsidiary breached its enterprise agreement by failing to pay employees who cashed-out personal/carer's leave the same amount as if they had worked their regular shift lengths.
