The Federal Court will consider whether to fine BHP Coal and order compensation after finding it took unlawful adverse action by excluding a Workpac labour hire worker because he exercised his workplace rights, including by complaining about allegedly unsafe practices.
The CFMMEU's construction and general division has blasted the AFP over an investigation that has dragged on since a raid on its Queensland offices in 2015, only to be dropped last month after the police admitted errors by digital forensics officers.
In what it claims is its first litigation seeking to have a holding company found responsible for its subsidiaries' breaches, the FWO has initiated court action against ASX-listed Super Retail Group for self-reported underpayments of more than $1 million that led to an internal audit and backpayments exceeding $50 million that the watchdog says remain short of the mark.
Union officials can't use their right to enter premises for discussions with members to gather signatures on petitions or "secure a commitment to a particular course of action in the future", the Federal Court has found, ruling in favour of an employer that blocked access for an organiser who sought workers' backing for a majority support determination.
As ROC staff await their transfer to the FWC, the watchdog has found that a former AEU ACT branch secretary did not improperly use his position, while it is also pursuing the AWU and a CFMMEU mining and energy division Queensland district leader in the Federal Court.
The Victorian Supreme Court has fined a former labour hire company and its director almost half a million dollars for failing to disclose that he had criminal convictions for offences including drug trafficking and theft.
A court has fined the director of a Japanese restaurant almost $25,000 after finding that he "reverse engineered" pay records provided to the FWO and asked a shortchanged employee not to "sell me out".
Wage Inspectorate Victoria has laid Australia's first criminal wage theft charges against a business and its owner, while warning it intends to bring further matters to court.
A Federal Court judge has while fining a franchisor almost $500,000 for deliberately underpaying Taiwanese interns speculated that a recent High Court ruling will impel more parties to agree on penalties rather than go to trial, an "unfortunate by-product" being fewer judgments offering "yardsticks" for future cases.
A court has declined to take the "extreme" step of throwing out a general protections case with a "long and troubled history" brought by a former FSU employee against the union, its national secretary and a state leader.
