The "deeper legacy" of the High Court's recent landmark Rossato judgment lies not so much in its pronouncements on the concept of casual employment, but in establishing a stricter approach to interpreting employment contracts that emphasises their written terms, leading employment barrister David Chin will tell the Australian Labour Law Association national conference tomorrow.
A former IBM chief financial officer claiming she was underpaid $101,000 in redundancy entitlements based on transitional arrangements for "Telstra heritage employees" was in fact overpaid by $27,000, a court has held.
An employer has failed to persuade the FWC that "assisting" a worker in securing a job with the successful inheritor of a key contract was sufficient reason to reduce his redundancy payout.
In a further warning on the importance of accurate payroll systems, the Australian Red Cross Society has become the latest surprising addition to the list of underpaying employers to have entered enforceable undertakings with the FWO after the charity self-reported short-changing employees a figure now estimated to top $25 million.
The FWC will hear the CFMMEU's challenge to BHP's mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy later this month after deciding the matter is significant enough to invite IR Minister Michaelia Cash, the ACTU and peak employer bodies to intervene.
A FWC full bench's insertion of a minimum wage guarantee in the horticulture award to ensure pieceworkers earn at least $25.41 an hour is "one of the most significant industrial decisions of modern times", according to the AWU.
The FWC has chosen not to withdraw an entry permit from a CFMMEU organiser fined $4500 for belittling and bullying conduct but warned the "well from which he drank" by expressing contrition and offering assurances "will likely have run dry" if he returns.
A full Federal Court has knocked back a Transport for NSW bid to prevent disclosure of tender documents and other evidence in the RTBU's challenge to an FWC finding that a privatised Sydney bus service is a genuine new enterprise that can be covered by a greenfields agreement.
The National Australia Bank is facing criminal charges that it failed to pay long service leave entitlements to casual employees in Victoria, as the State's wage theft watchdog continues its pursuit of big employers.
