A university study of international students' employment conditions in food services shows they are receiving as little as $8 an hour and a median of $17, well below the award rate of about $21.
A cleaning company that shamelessly exploited a vulnerable workforce made "inept attempts” to avoid the legal consequences when it claimed its employees were independent contractors, the Federal Court has found.
A labour hire employer "approved" by the federal government under the Seasonal Labour Program must engage an external auditor to check arrangements with 20% of its workforce after an FWO investigation discovered it underpaid visa recruits on a NSW farm.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has warned accessorial liability for workplace breaches is now being extended beyond employers and company directors to those working in human resources, management and recruitment.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has rejected a Labor proposal to make a joint submission to the Fair Work Commission on the importance of maintaining penalty rates.
Domino's Pizza says it intends to introduce penalty rates in its next agreement and that a Deutsche Bank report predicting the change could reduce profits by 24% does not factor in productivity measures implemented since the previous deal.
A court has ordered a 7-Eleven franchisee to pay a $150,000 penalty for deliberately underpaying employees and using a "reverse calculation" regime to cover its tracks.
The FWO has secured its largest back-payment, after making an enforceable undertaking with a Victorian-based mining services company that requires it to reimburse $2 million to 205 underpaid workers and provide IR training to all managers with HR and payroll responsibilities.
An FWO inquiry into housekeeping services reveals that exploitation of vulnerable, overseas workers is rife within the industry, as one of Australia's largest hotel and resort operators agrees to enter into enforceable undertakings with the watchdog in a bid to avoid proceedings over an independent contracting model it established that robbed workers of their correct wages and conditions.
Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is ending the Fels Panel's oversight of its process for rectifying systematic underpayments to franchisee employees and moving the task to what it says is an independent internal unit.
