The Federal Circuit Court has found a newspaper publisher took adverse action when it forced a full-time journalist to sign a take-it-or-leave it statement reducing him to two days a week - with unspecified entitlements to be paid in instalments - and sacked him when he complained.
A FWC full bench has today acceded to employer requests to change annual leave provisions in modern awards to enable cashing-out of up to two weeks a year and give employers a qualified power to require employees to take "excessive" accruals.
The AWU is seeking to terminate a substandard cleaning agreement exposed in the Heydon Royal Commission, while former Victorian branch secretary Cesar Melhem has stepped down as Labor whip in Victoria's upper house, after the inquiry criticised workplace deals struck during his leadership.
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 AWU's Victorian branch received up to $25,000 a year from a Spotless Group subsidiary under a memorandum of understanding that meant cleaners were not paid penalty rates, the Heydon Royal Commission heard today.
Tensions over the new national agreement covering Coles supermarkets has boiled over into angry public exchanges between officials from the SDA and the meatworkers' union.
The TWU has called for greater rights for foreign workers on temporary visas, with criminal sanctions to be imposed on employers who exploit them and illegally undercut wages.
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.
The Greens will refer allegations of exploitation of foreign workers on farms and in food processing plants to a Senate inquiry into the working visa system, according to its IR spokesperson, Adam Bandt.
