The FWC has cleared the way for a Philippines-based paralegal to pursue her unfair dismissal claim, finding her an employee of a Queensland law firm that paid her $12 an hour below award.
The Victorian Government should opt for best practice guidelines over law reform, the Australian Industry Group has told a parliamentary workplace surveillance inquiry, while the Centre for Future Work says there is an urgent need for dedicated workplace surveillance laws to address the "serious and unacceptable risks" associated with increased monitoring.
A full bench comprising the FWC's three most senior members has made same-job, same-pay orders that will increase wages for one labour supplier's workers at a Queensland meatworks by about 25% and provide "significantly higher rates" for a second supplier's workers at the same workplace.
An account manager who helped to lure 45 clients to a rival has been ordered to pay $500,000 to his former employer, after a judge highlighted the difficulty of gathering evidence in a case in which one of the manager's mobile phones surfaced after being "immersed in water" and another "met with the unhappy fate of being run over by a lawn mower".
The Albanese Government has told a FWC full bench it supports its review of gender undervaluation of five female-dominated awards, but wants it to phase-in any resulting large increases to manage the effects on the public purse.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking a labour hire company to court for unlawfully deducting $500 fines from migrant workers' pay when they breached its drug and alcohol policy.
After Wilmar Sugar rejected a FWC recommendation to offer a 21.33% pay rise over four years, workers at its Queensland mills have narrowly voted up a three-year deal providing a 16% increase, plus a $2500 sign-on sweetener.
Maurice Blackburn's head of employment and industrial law, Josh Bornstein, says he has written a book challenging employers' increasing suppression of free speech to highlight "a major flaw in our democracy" and "a major threat" to workers' rights.
