In finding a worker with an oral contract an independent contractor, the FWC has affirmed that the principles of Personnel Contracting apply whether the contract is written, oral or some combination and has suggested that the previously-used "multifactorial approach" didn't necessarily cause "chaos", but created "legal and commercial uncertainty".
A major mining company should have paid untaken sick leave to 20 retrenched employees, the Federal Court has ruled, in a judgment closely examining how the Fair Work Act's high-income threshold applies to annualised salaries.
In an important decision holding that a largely unpaid advisor was a tech start-up's employee rather than an independent contractor, the FWC has relied on the in-principle acceptance of his "far from comprehensive" proposal and the way in which the contract was performed.
A 20% pay cut imposed on a general manager while his employer shut its doors due to COVID-19 restrictions breached his contract and did not qualify as a JobKeeper-enabling direction, WA's IRC has held.
A former chief sustainability officer is suing a major property group for more than $800,000 – including a retention payment – in an adverse action case accusing it of dressing-up a post-takeover redundancy as a dismissal to avoid paying his full entitlements.
The High Court has affirmed the primacy of contractual terms in determining employment relationships, finding a construction worker was an employee of a labour hire company and that two truck drivers were independent contractors despite decades of exclusive service to a solitary business.
Food delivery business Menulog has told the FWC that some couriers working for its competitors might be engaged under employment contracts rather than as independent contractors.
The FSU is planning to apply for good faith bargaining orders against Cbus, alleging the major industry super fund is engaging in capricious and unfair conduct that includes pushing individual contracts for some employees.
IR academics say the High Court's "revolutionary" approach in Rossato signals an intention to rewrite the rules for determining employment status, with potentially dire consequences for gig workers and others seeking to challenge their characterisation.
The Andrews Labor Government will start working on State-based standards and regulation for work in the gig economy, after failing to win support for national action from the Morrison Government.
