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The HR manager of a dumpling chain fined $4 million over a "deceitful and unscrupulous" payroll scam has been hit with a $100,000 penalty for her role, after the Federal Court heard a big sanction might force her to sell her share of her home.

In what stands as a forensic analysis of disciplinary process failings, a judge in a near-300-page judgment has found that a construction giant took adverse action against a senior manager when it sacked him for allegedly intimidating property owners while partying during the 2020 bushfire recovery effort.

The Mining and Energy Union's 18-member national governing body will have two positions reserved for women – up from one – after the FWC accepted "persuasive" evidence that it would make the union's leadership more representative.

The FWC has found a worker ineligible for paid parental leave for her second child because she only returned to work for six and a half months before the second period of intended leave, rather than the 12 months that her enterprise agreement required.

Safework NSW is calling for employers to develop anti-violence policies and procedures to prevent or minimise workplace s-xual harassment and other forms of violence, following a court ordering Marist Youth Care to pay more than $400,000 in fines and costs after its workers experienced "s-xualised and aggressive behaviour".

A full Federal Court has clarified the extent to which employers must investigate alternative roles for workers caught up in restructures, finding that a mining company had an obligation to assess whether employees could replace already-engaged contractors before making them redundant.

The FWC is seeking submissions on the latest phase of its research on gender-based occupational segregation, which has been released ahead of this year's annual wage review.

A court has accepted that Melbourne University threatened two casual workers that "if you claim outside your contracted hours don't expect work next year" and when one worker tried to claim five additional hours it refused to further engage her, calling her a "self-entitled Y-genner" on a "crusade behind the scenes".

The FWC is considering whether to provide a "generous opportunity" for organisations with a broader interest to participate in two MEU "same job, same pay" test cases that aim to lift the pay of Programmed and Workpac labour hire mine workers.

A café owner penalised for ignoring a FWO compliance notice has been referred to a legal profession regulator after variously describing herself as a "Commonwealth public prosecutions Lawyer" and "Gov lawyer" in emails to a court.