Merivale has hit back at a class action's claims it underpaid thousands of salaried employees and others engaged under a pre-Fair Work "zombie" deal and is maintaining it can use overpayments to offset additional entitlements.
The see-sawing jurisprudence about whether historical workplace breaches should count towards penalties took another turn today, as a judge squarely positioned in the 'yes' camp affirmed that he would continue to factor-in the CFMMEU's "astounding" record, even for trivial offences.
Former FSU Victoria and Tasmania local executive secretary David Scanlon is suing the union and seven members of its local executive for ousting him in February, after he refused to send a nominated delegation to an ALP state conference.
A former BP manager is suing Puma Energy for almost half a million dollars in redundancy pay after he was sacked in the wake of his new employer acquiring the petroleum giant's local bitumen business.
A professional football club's chief operating officer is seeking $200,000 in damages after claiming that the employer unlawfully re-allocated some of his duties because of the time he devoted to his ill wife.
The Federal Court has given the FWO permission to pursue a case that "raises matters of public importance with implications well beyond the parties" that involves a company, now in voluntary liquidation, that allegedly obstructed the watchdog's inspectors.
Three payroll officers who "reverse-engineered" false records during an FWO investigation have been fined a total of $121,000 as part of the largest penalty order won by the workplace watchdog.
Coles says a class action seeking to recoup more than $150 million allegedly owed to salaried managers is without merit, given it is already on track to finalise its review and start re-paying affected employees.
The Fair Work Ombudsman concedes it has been drawn into unfamiliar territory by a spate of multi-million dollar underpayments by large corporations, telling a parliamentary inquiry that policing systemic payroll non-compliance at companies like Woolworths, Qantas and Wesfarmers "does not sit easily" with its historic role.
