In a significant decision on FWO investigative powers under recent laws stiffening protections for vulnerable workers, the Federal Court has rejected a franchisor's bid to have declared void a notice to produce documents created before the legislation came into force.
The FWO has confirmed it is now investigating three universities after the University of Sydney became the latest to reveal multimillion-dollar underpayments, while the NTEU blames mass casualisation for creating the conditions for "wage theft".
In levelling a $22,440 penalty against the former owner-operator of a labour-hire company that underpaid 80 workers on a Queensland mushroom farm more than $78,000, a court has noted the FWO did not seek compensation.
In a coronavirus-driven strategy shift, the Fair Work Ombudsman will temporarily consider the "impact on viability" when deciding whether to prosecute employers, but has stressed it will still require underpayments to be made good.
In the FWO's first "contrition payment" extracted from another federal public body, the ABC has agreed to pay $600,000 and enter into an enforceable undertaking after admitting it underpaid 1900 past and current employees more than $12 million.
The MBAV this year applied to revoke a 30-year-old exemption that enabled it to conduct its own elections, after an inquiry by the ROC into the conduct of the employer body's 2018 ballot.
The Federal Court has given the FWO permission to pursue a case that "raises matters of public importance with implications well beyond the parties" that involves a company, now in voluntary liquidation, that allegedly obstructed the watchdog's inspectors.
Three payroll officers who "reverse-engineered" false records during an FWO investigation have been fined a total of $121,000 as part of the largest penalty order won by the workplace watchdog.
The Registered Organisation Commission's challenge to the Federal Court's quashing of its investigation into the AWU's past donations is set to be heard next month, while the regulator has completed its investigation of an employer organisation and is awaiting advice on whether it will deregister before taking further action.
The Victorian Government has pushed ahead with legislation to create a criminal offence for deliberate underpayment, defying employer calls for it to be scrapped or delayed.
