An FWO inquiry into housekeeping services reveals that exploitation of vulnerable, overseas workers is rife within the industry, as one of Australia's largest hotel and resort operators agrees to enter into enforceable undertakings with the watchdog in a bid to avoid proceedings over an independent contracting model it established that robbed workers of their correct wages and conditions.
The FWC has reinstated a bus driver sacked for using a de-activated mobile as a music player while on the job and cleaner accused of stealing the pre-start coffee he made in a client's kitchen, while it has upheld QBE's dismissal of an employee suspected of insurance fraud.
Lend Lease has secured an order to prevent further industrial action at a strife-torn hospital construction site until the project's scheduled completion in August, but the FWC has stopped short of finding that the CFMEU and CEPU organised workers to walk off the job.
The CFMEU, CEPU and three individual organisers have been fined a combined total of almost $95,000 for encouraging workers at the Ichthys LNG project to stop work and disrupt a "critical" concrete pour in protest at the project's allegedly inadequate "park and ride" facilities.
A Turnbull Coalition Government, if returned at the July 2 election, will amend the Fair Work Act to make franchisors and parent entities responsible for their franchisees' and subsidiaries' exploitation of vulnerable workers, while increasing penalties tenfold for employers that underpay such workers and fail to keep proper records.
The FWC has allowed an aviation industry employer to engage a lawyer to defend a "complex" unfair dismissal claim by an employee it sacked for allegedly using a fake Facebook profile to proffer his support for the ISIS terrorist group.
An Irish visa worker sacked for threatening his boss has failed to persuade the FWC he meant no harm when he said "I'll fix you up" in a phone call that resulted in his summary dismissal.
The Federal Court has cast doubt on whether there is a basis for ordering a company to pay penalties or compensation for adverse action against a worker, because it never acted on a recommendation to dismiss him for making a harassment claim that allegedly had shaky foundations.
A company had a valid reason for sacking an employee who called its chief executive an "old c---t", but its conduct and procedures rendered the dismissal unfair, the FWC has ruled.
