The FWO has hit a new high in the cases it has taken to court, as it continues to target large corporates and adds universities to its priority list, according to the watchdog's annual report.
A special panel, similar to that proposed for the road transport industry, could be established within the FWC to set minimum pay and conditions for gig workers in disability, aged and home care, a leading IR academic has told a parliamentary inquiry.
A new report says that wage theft in Australian freight shipping is costing seafarers about $65 million a year and necessitates changes to the Fair Work Act and greater powers and cooperation for regulators.
A law firm found to have breached the Legal Profession Act when estimating costs says it will challenge a 25% deduction to the sum it claims after settling one of several no win, no fee retail workers' class actions, arguing also that proposed exemptions for litigation funding schemes are unlikely to improve the plight of those who are underpaid.
The Victorian Government's wage inspectorate has charged two Commonwealth Bank subsidiaries with allegedly failing to pay more than $70,000 in long service leave entitlements to 20 former employees and failing to comply with a notice to produce documents.
The Greens will push to enshrine presumptions in the Fair Work Act that all workers are entitled to the same pay and conditions as employees and all work will be continuing unless there are sound operational business reasons against it, party leader Adam Bandt says.
The Fair Work Ombudsman says its record $532 million recovery of unpaid wages and entitlements in the last financial year was dominated by large corporates whose woes in part were caused by "complacency" or "high-risk workplace relations strategies".
A former economics professor's troubled relationship with workplace laws has continued, after a court accepted that he "actively" managed an underpaying grocery store previously fined for similar breaches.
The UWU has closed Hospo Voice, Australia's first "digital-only" union, while maintaining it has provided valuable lessons and tools as organised labour seeks to counter its weakness in attracting and retaining young workers.
IR Minister Tony Burke has outlined some of the entitlements he would like the FWC to include in the minimum conditions it prescribes for gig workers, while emphasising that it will be up to the tribunal to decide what's in and what's out, but a leading IR academic who developed a state labor government's blueprint for labour hire regulation says the new Government's approach will provide "a limited solution".
