The Fair Work Ombudsman won more than $7.2 million in court-ordered penalties in the latest financial year, a 49% increase from the previous year reflecting more serious cases and courts' "growing intolerance for exploitative conduct against vulnerable workers".
Dismissal-related general protections claims are up by 26% over the past two years, while unfair dismissal applications are down by 7.5% over the same period, according to the Fair Work Commission's 2017-18 annual report.
The AMWU, AWU and FSU suffered the most precipitous membership declines among large unions over the past 13 years, while the Police Federation and the ANMF made the biggest gains, according to a new parliamentary library background paper that draws on Registered Organisations Commission data.
The Registered Organisations Commission had 15 "open" matters on its books in the middle of the year that involved protected disclosures by whistleblowers, according to its annual report.
Toll's failure to specify that it would not recognise a worker's prior service with a labour hire company has left it open to his unfair dismissal claim, with the FWC finding he met the minimum employment period as the transfer of his work established a connection between his new and old employer.
The NSW Court of Appeal has found that former HSU leader and ex-Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson is not a fit and proper person to remain on the roll of Australian lawyers maintained by the State Supreme Court.
The ACTU has accused Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker of breaching workplace laws by making false and misleading statements about next week's national protest rallies, and is demanding she retract them.
The FWC has rejected employers' claims that the CFMMEU only made "superficial" changes to its logs of claims after the tribunal found it had been pattern bargaining against two mobile crane companies, in further reasons for approving a protected action ballot.
