Australian authorities are seeking assurances that the owners and operators of a coal carrier detained off the Queensland coast will pay the wages of about 20 crew and give them enough provisions for their journey to China.
Employers calculating redundancy payments will have to count periods of regular and systematic casual employment before workers became permanent, after a Fair Work Commission majority ruling that a dissenting member warns could retrospectively bestow other entitlements such as annual leave.
In its annual review of the IR landscape, a major employment law firm concedes that while the Turnbull Government's workplace reform agenda may not be fully enacted in this parliamentary term, plans to crack down on worker exploitation have a good prospect of success.
A court has ordered WorkCover to pay $1.5 million to an employee who suffered psychiatric trauma after being sexually assaulted at work, telling a Brisbane youth service that it should have foreseen the risk and stopped attending a problem client.
Roy Morgan Research Ltd has been fined $52,000 for denying a director's request for flexible hours following her return from maternity leave, before then making her redundant.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has warned accessorial liability for workplace breaches is now being extended beyond employers and company directors to those working in human resources, management and recruitment.
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.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn is considering a test case exploring whether food delivery companies in Victoria such as Foodora and Deliveroo are engaging in sham contracting by engaging riders who claim they are being paid below award rates.
Domino's Pizza says it intends to introduce penalty rates in its next agreement and that a Deutsche Bank report predicting the change could reduce profits by 24% does not factor in productivity measures implemented since the previous deal.
A court has ordered a 7-Eleven franchisee to pay a $150,000 penalty for deliberately underpaying employees and using a "reverse calculation" regime to cover its tracks.
