A Federal Court majority has today dealt a hammer blow to NSW's and Victoria's pursuit of employers alleged to have avoided long service leave entitlements to casuals, ruling that a tribunal's reading of the Fair Work Act's LSL provision produced an "absurdity" whereby employers received "no warning" they could be held criminally liable for supposed non-payments.
A judge irked by a multinational company's attempt to cast its underpaying subsidiary's award breaches as the court's "alternate interpretation" has imposed a near-maximum fine.
In what it claims is its first litigation seeking to have a holding company found responsible for its subsidiaries' breaches, the FWO has initiated court action against ASX-listed Super Retail Group for self-reported underpayments of more than $1 million that led to an internal audit and backpayments exceeding $50 million that the watchdog says remain short of the mark.
A full Federal Court has knocked back a traffic management company's attempt to overturn the FWC's rejection of a proposed non-union deal and has given it a clip around the ears for the way it ran the case.
The HSU is seeking in a Federal Court action to establish that outsourced kitchen and food services work performed in aged care facilities is covered by the industry's award rather than the lower-paying hospitality award.
A full Federal Court has cleared the way for a police officer injured while on duty to argue the NSW police commissioner acted in a discriminatory manner in demoting then medically discharging him.
The IEU says it will call out non-government schools over a widespread practice of engaging staff and others in key co-curricular roles as "volunteers", after a Queensland college back paid more than $2 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO.
A traffic management company seeking a deal paying night workers shift loadings instead of higher overtime rates even if they don't take over from a preceding shift has lost its appeal bid after refusing to give an undertaking to overcome the deficiency.
A full Federal Court has opened the way for a former coach of national swimming champions to pursue a six-year underpayment claim after quashing a finding that an award did not cover his role as he was overqualified and worked at too high a level.
Leading wealth management company Ord Minnett is facing a $230,000 underpayment claim from a commission-based former advisor who is pursuing his minimum award rate and leave entitlements dating back to 2015, plus penalties.
