After entering into an FWO compliance partnership that commits it to taking responsibility for underpayments across its trolley collection network for the past three years, Woolworths says it would welcome working with any regulatory body to ensure workers in all supply chains are paid correctly.
In the FWO's first underpayment prosecution relying on race discrimination prohibitions in the Fair Work Act, a court has found a Tasmanian hotel and its manager deliberately short-changed a head chef and kitchen hand and expected them to work long hours, six days a week because of their Malaysian nationality and Chinese race.
The Federal Court has today ordered former ABC Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss to pay the CFMEU an $8,500 fine for his "wrongdoing" when he breached the law "he was required to police", resulting in the dissemination of "false information" on right of entry.
The ROC has launched an inquiry into the HSU's Tasmanian branch over an alleged "termination payment" provided to former state secretary and current national secretary Chris Brown, while the CEPU has dismissed an ROC investigation into reporting breaches as a scare tactic.
The CFMEU has told the Federal Court that significant penalties are required against ABC Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss for causing incorrect information to be published on union right of entry, and has urged it to consider his unlawful conduct as spanning the full period it remained online.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has flagged that it is likely to take legal action over alleged underpayments at Caltex service stations that are run by franchisees.
Major construction company Laing O'Rourke has failed to convince the FWC that a current agreement clause could effectively render its NSW and ACT deals compliant with the building code, but the tribunal has recommended that the CFMEU and employees take all necessary steps to achieve compliance.
A full Federal Court has fined the CFMEU $300,000 and the CEPU $130,000 over a 2011 industrial campaign; penalties that are almost three times higher than originally sought by the construction watchdog.
