Convenience store chain 7-Eleven claims it has handed over almost $700,000 to 21 underpaid employees since it moved its rectification process in-house, coinciding with the FWO securing its largest penalty against one of the company's franchisees for conduct such as repaying employees then demanding they hand the money back.
The Turnbull Government has pledged that if it is returned on July 2, it will introduce a public interest test for union mergers, which would put the planned tie-up between the CFMEU and the MUA under the microscope.
The director of a security company that knowingly and deliberately underpaid eight casual security guards by more than $20,000 over a three month period must personally repay the employees after what the FWO is hailing as a "precedent-setting" Federal Circuit Court ruling.
An independent Islamic school that hired more fixed-term teachers than permitted under the award and then tried to cover it up has been fined $150,000 by the Federal Court for unlawful practices, in one of the largest penalty decisions handed down against a school
The Federal Court has found that the CFMEU unlawfully coerced construction joint venturers when it threatened to take industrial action on a "national scale" and bring about "Armageddon" if they sought to enforce an anti-strike order.
The FWC has rejected bullying allegations against Essential Energy's chief executive officer, but has ordered the company to accept voluntary redundancy applications from two employees who brought the anti-bullying claim because the cost of keeping them on the books when there is no meaningful work is "irrational, absurd and ridiculous".