The Federal Court has rejected a bid by the FWO and CFMMEU to upset a major labour hire company's treatment of workers as independent contractors, finding the service agreement signed by the parties transparently spelt out the true nature of their relationship.
The former director of a liquidated dental practice has been penalised and ordered to backpay a 457 visa worker thousands of dollars after a second adverse underpayment judgment involving his company.
The Morrison Government is looking to establish a national labour hire registration scheme early next year, according to a briefing given to IR Minister Christian Porter soon after he took up his new role.
A Deliveroo rider has launched a sham contracting test case, claiming the company should have paid him almost twice as much, as a casual employee rather than per delivery as an independent contractor, given a "batching system" that weighted individual performance factors.
A small coach company that voluntarily repaid two drivers almost $44,000 after admitting underpaying them has been penalised a total of $168,300, despite a judge finding the breaches were a result of "clumsiness and inadvertence" rather than deliberate.
Sham contractors face higher penalties and a harder time showing they have inadvertently misrepresented employment arrangements under legislative changes contemplated by a Treasury discussion paper.
A former GM Holden engineer is suing the company for adverse action, sham contracting and coercion, alleging it reduced her redundancy payout by more than $20,000 when she refused to sign a separation agreement without continuity of service covering her time as a contractor.
A landmark unfair dismissal case involving a former delivery rider for Foodora Australia Pty Ltd is set to continue tomorrow, despite the company last month going into voluntary administration.
The voluntary administrators of food delivery business Foodora Australia Pty Ltd say the process will give the company "essential breathing space", which includes a statutory stay on landmark legal proceedings testing whether its riders are employees or contractors.
Two big international direct marketing companies exercised control over workers who were engaged as independent contractors to sell products or solicit donations to major corporations and charities, according to documents lodged with the Federal Court.
