A landmark contempt finding and accompanying jail sentence hailed as proof of the FWO's commitment to justice has been overturned by a full Federal Court that found the ruling judge's "open" hostility to the underpaying employer compromised his ability to consider the evidence.
The FWO has launched a test case against the operator of a pop-up toy store, seeking to reverse the onus of proof for underpayments and rely for the first time on serious contraventions provisions that potentially expose the company and its director to 10 times the ordinary maximum penalties.
A tribunal has ruled against UFU Victorian branch and national secretary Peter Marshall in a dispute over defined benefit superannuation that could have added about $1 million to his retirement benefits.
Employers say the FWC's decision to forge ahead with model annualised wage clauses containing new record-keeping and reconciliation requirements – inserting them into some awards for the first time – will impose a "major red tape burden" while removing much of the benefit.
A university's decision to slash casual tutors' rates for online student support almost four years into an agreement has been endorsed by the FWC, despite the member observing that the deal's definition of tutorial harked back to his long-gone days at law school.
The CFMMEU says the Federal Court has made an "outrageous decision" in directing that $1m held in a trust fund as a result of a case brought by the union now be shared by all former employees of the liquidated labour hire company One Key Workforce Pty Ltd.
Maurice Blackburn has massively expanded the size and reach of its Victoria-generated class action against Uber, reaching out around the country and targeting the period when the ride share company started to operate in 2014, before state-based transport laws were changed.
The union advising Shine Lawyers on a $1 billion bid to recoup wages and entitlements for 4000 telecommunications workers allegedly misclassified as sub-contractors says the class action could finally answer a question historically avoided via settlement.
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 voluntary administrators of food delivery business Foodora Australia Pty Ltd say the process will give the company "essential breathing space", which includes a statutory stay on landmark legal proceedings testing whether its riders are employees or contractors.
