Unions should be afforded the opportunity to reprise their traditional "cop on the beat" role by being handed the same powers as the FWO to refer underpayment cases to the DPP and AFP for prosecution, the NTEU says in a submission to the Senate wage theft inquiry.
A former FWO chief counsel-turned judge has taken an axe to the workplace regulator's belief in penalties as a general deterrent, expressing astonishment at its "staggering" pursuit of a $21,000 fine against an employer who quickly coughed up a $976 underpayment once a junior worker provided proof of their age.
A court has ordered the FWO to pay costs for its "very late" and unexplained abandonment of an underpayments case, while highlighting its failure to "grapple" with the case's underlying problems.
The Federal Court has slugged a wharfie almost $10,000 for telling a colleague "You'll end up dead dog" if he kept escorting on-hire workers through a lawful picket during a strike at Fremantle port in 2021.
In a significant judgment on tertiary education sector pay, a full Federal Court has today found that under the academic staff award, a casual lecturer should have been paid for time spent marking assessments not directly related to particular lectures or tutorials.
The National Construction Industry Forum has today unanimously endorsed a reform blueprint for the building and construction industry that pushes for the Albanese Government to give the FWC and FWO dispute resolution and enforcement powers.
Increasing the small business unfair dismissal definition from 15 to 20 employees by headcount would expose an extra 500,000 workers to inferior protections, while lifting it to 50 would affect almost an additional two million, according to an FWO report that says there is insufficient consensus across the IR spectrum to support any change.
The FWO has established a panel of aged care industry employers and unions to oversee what it calls a "collective approach" to policing the sector as it continues a crackdown on facilities, home care providers and gig platforms that underpaid workers at least $40 million last financial year.
The FWO has launched a court case seeking penalties against former CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch secretary John Setka and the union for allegedly attempting to coerce the AFL into sacking its head of umpiring, former ABCC commissioner Steve McBurney.
