Australia's largest bus operator has been fined $181,000 after a judge considered an internal email to its chief executive warning of the "very real possibility of being accused of 'wage theft'" if it did not pay more than 750 drivers an overdue wage increase.
Hospitality workers on at least 25% above-award annualised salaries will earn overtime for such work beyond 12 hours a week or penalty rates for working more than 18 penalty rate hours, but the FWC concedes the minimum is "nowhere near enough" to compensate many.
The FWC faces major changes after the May 21 Federal election, with the winner entrusted with appointing a successor to President Iain Ross and Labor pledging to "rebalance" the tribunal after a succession of appointments from an employer background.
In a significant decision regarding the statutory meaning of "dismissed", a five-member FWC bench majority has ruled that an employer did not sack a worker when it shaved almost 10% off his annual pay for disciplinary reasons.
A support worker came close to committing an offence when she implied that an FWC presidential member behaved in an unusual manner and interfered to reduce her settlement during a conciliation conference.
The AWU has admitted to more than 24,000 historic contraventions of registered organisations' obligations to report their membership numbers, a Senate Estimates committee has heard.
An IR manager who recently gave evidence in his company's FWC bid for a s418 anti-industrial-action order will now be sitting on the Commission's bench, after Attorney-General and IR Minister Michaelia Cash made a last-minute appointment ahead of the election anticipated next month.
Ahead of Friday's final full bench hearing into the ACTU's case for introducing paid family domestic violence leave into modern awards, the ACCI says it should have "little confidence" in the cost-benefit analyses provided by the union peak body's expert witnesses.
