A company's parental leave policy – which breached the NES by making unpaid parental leave only available to "primary" caregivers - has cost it $170,000 in the unpaid wages and redundancy pay that an employee would have received if he had been allowed to access the leave and its flow-on benefits.
Five weeks after ordering Darwin-based Choong Enterprises to pay the largest-ever court-imposed fine for breaching 457 visa sponsorship obligations, the Federal Court has directed the company to backpay seven of the Filipino workers involved a total of more than $100,000.
In one of the last wages and entitlements cases pursued by the FWBC, a building subcontractor that used a labour-hire company to distance itself from it employment obligations has been fined $145,000 and ordered to backpay $150,000 to more than a dozen workers.
The stevedoring award contains "inflated" penalty rates that are out of proportion to those applying in other industries, a senior FWC member has found in a decision in which he was overruled by a full bench majority.
Modern award transfer of business provisions that guarantee a new employer's recognition of prior service are set to be adjusted after a FWC full bench found they conflict with the National Employment Standards.
Giving teenage employees free and discounted pizzas and soft drink instead of wages – a practice belonging "in the dark ages rather than twenty first century Australia" – has cost a pizza franchise operator $335,000 in fines.
A finance broking house that issued a Brisbane-based employee five payslips in six years and employed him on a commission-based agreement that it believed did not entitle him to base salary, sick pay, annual leave and superannuation entitlements has been ordered to pay him almost $124,000 in penalties.
The SDA has successfully appealed against fast food and hair & beauty industry employers having greater flexibility in compensating employees for working on public holidays.
The Federal Court has overturned a ruling by the Federal Circuit Court that paint manufacturer Wattyl did not breach its enterprise agreement when it directed employees to take annual leave during a production scale-down in 2012.
In a significant decision, a Fair Work Commission full bench has agreed to scrap the 90% rate for 20-year-old retail workers, holding they should receive full adult pay after six months with an employer.
