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.
A contractor "knowingly involved" in underpaying vulnerable supermarket trolley collectors and a subcontractor who "deliberately" produced false payment records and underpaid employees have been fined more than $90,000 by the Federal Court.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn is considering a test case exploring whether food delivery companies in Victoria such as Foodora and Deliveroo are engaging in sham contracting by engaging riders who claim they are being paid below award rates.
The FWC has recommended a Perth man working on the Ichthys LNG project in Darwin be paid a living-away-from-home allowance despite renting locally when he was employed.
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.
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 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.
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.
