A court has accepted that it should impose a reduced underpayment penalty on an employer and its director because last year's extended coronavirus lockdown in Melbourne significantly reduced the size and financial resources of the business.
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.
Food delivery business Menulog has kicked off its trial of using employed riders instead of contractors in the Sydney CBD, with participants mostly working four-hour shifts, with the option of split shifts.
The FWO has begun prosecuting retailer Woolworths for allegedly substantially underpaying salaried managers who had been subject to annualised salaries.
Woolworths has succeeded in having reference to its own no-cost alternative inserted into an opt-out notice to be sent by law firm Adero to current and prospective class action members claiming underpayments estimated in the hundreds of millions.
Australia's largest independent grocery retailer in defending a $20 million class action has admitted to breaching leave loading requirements, but otherwise denied it should have paid salaried employees for extra hours or recorded their additional time.
A judge who took exception to a business being liquidated during an underpayment case was entitled to impose heavier penalties on the owners than sought by the FWO, an appeal court has found.
Multinational cosmetics company Lush has backpaid workers almost $4.5 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO after the lack of an HR department and training, along with a moribund manual payroll system, led to widespread underpayments.
A 61-year-old former economics professor has been fined $31,000 for underpaying two visa holders employed at a Korean grocery, a court finding he deliberately arranged for them to receive as little as $10 an hour.
