A full Federal Court has confirmed that class actions cannot start until members are correctly identified but can "transmogrify", after Adero Law conceded the definition contained in a store managers' claim against The Reject Shop left the group "empty".
A small business and its owner have been hit with fines, compensation and damages totalling more than $300,000 after the "deplorable" exploitation of a young worker with an intellectual disability who went almost two years without being paid.
Woolworths has been hit with another underpayments class action, at the same time it is defending a shareholder class action accusing it of breaching disclosure rules by failing to keep the market informed about the extent to which it has shortchanged staff.
The implications of the Federal Court's retail underpayments decision are only starting to be understood, with employment law academic Andrew Stewart warning of the significent consequences of its redefinition of employer record-keeping obligations and findings on proving workers' agreement to vary award conditions.
The Federal Court has approved a $174 million Victorian Government payout to settle 30 class actions on behalf of junior doctors, of which ASMOF will be reimbursed $175,000, following a finding that a health service "expressly and brazenly" instructed trainees to perform unpaid overtime.
Labor maintains that its legislation to protect penalty and overtime rates, to be introduced to Parliament tomorrow, will block changes to awards that might make a single worker worse off.
With more than a third of young workers paid $15 an hour or less and almost half working unpaid overtime, loaded rates could provide a partial solution, according to new university research on the exploitation of young workers.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking a labour hire company to court for unlawfully deducting $500 fines from migrant workers' pay when they breached its drug and alcohol policy.
