The Fair Work Ombudsman has asked a Victorian Government agency to urgently review the way it engages workers, after an investigation revealed it might be "misclassifying" employees as independent contractors.
The Federal Court has criticised the Federal Circuit Court for ignoring a protocol between the two judicial bodies in its decision to transfer a sham contracting matter to it, but will hear the case to avoid a "tennis match".
The Federal Court will examine the multi-level marketing operations of an international networking business after the Federal Circuit Court ruled that a sham contracting case launched by the FWO was complex and lengthy enough to go to a higher authority.
The Federal Circuit Court has drawn a link between s-xual assault laws and the Fair Work Act's sham contracting prohibitions in finding that a floor repairing business was not "reckless" as to whether five of its independent contractors were actually employees.
A building company and its director who dismissed a construction worker so that they could re-employ her as an independent contractor now face civil penalties and a possible compensation order.
In an unusual postscript to a notorious sham contracting case, an abattoir operator has relied on a Federal Court ruling that it had vigorously opposed to successfully argue that it was the employer of an injured worker, thus avoiding having to pay him more than $150,000 in common law damages.
The Federal Circuit Court has imposed $313,500 in penalties on a company in the Roy Morgan Group for sham contracting, ruling the contraventions were deliberate and directed by senior management.
The Federal Court has found that shifting seasonal workers to a new employer after they'd worked 40 hours a week was a "sham" arrangement to avoid paying overtime.
