The Federal Court has today ordered former TWU WA branch secretaries Jim McGiveron and Rick Burton to pay more than $65,000 in penalties, mostly for their roles in purchasing two "luxury utes" for their personal use and arranging a redundancy payment of almost $400,000 to McGiveron.
The new standalone regulator for registered organisations will start operating on Monday, May 1, with its new powers taking effect by the following day.
Business groups have told the FWC that it is prohibited from varying or revoking its decision to cut Sunday and public holiday penalty rates and have slammed United Voice over its call for the case to be immediately concluded so that it can launch a judicial review.
A court has found an employer underpaid a worker by more than $230,000 because it "recklessly disguised the true legal nature" of a 20-year-plus employment relationship by classifying him as an independent contractor.
Queensland's Supreme Court has made a ruling suggesting that environmental clean-up costs trump employee obligations when companies fail, according to top-tier law firm Herbert Smith Freehills.
As the FWC calls for submissions on an employer bid to ditch the term "penalty rates" and replace it with "additional remuneration", a senior union-clientele lawyer is warning of a "slippery slope" if recognition of a need to compensate those working unsociable hours is removed.
