A security company must provide United Voice with internal correspondence about its practice of engaging contractors and employees, as the union pursues it for allegedly employing two embassy guards on sham contracts and sacking them when they refused to waive legal rights.
The Federal Court has reserved judgment on whether hundreds of charity fundraisers for a major marketing agency can mount a class action to pursue it for alleged sham contracting.
A court has found an employer underpaid a worker by more than $230,000 because it "recklessly disguised the true legal nature" of a 20-year-plus employment relationship by classifying him as an independent contractor.
The rapid rise of the "gig" economy has "normalised" sham contracting and exploitation of young workers, according to a submission to a Senate inquiry into corporate avoidance of the Fair Work Act.
Fast food giant Pizza Hut has underpaid some of its delivery drivers, offering as little as $5.70 per delivery, with 92% of franchisees audited by the FWO failing to meet their legal obligations to employees, a report by the regulator has found.
The FWC has found a roof tiler is an employee who can make an unfair dismissal claim, ruling his employer created an independent contracting "façade" to suit its own purposes and avoid paying his entitlements.
A court has fined a company and its director $124,000 over a sham contracting arrangement in which they underpaid a 417 visa-holder almost $8000 for four months work after misclassifying him as an independent contractor.
