A Victorian Government inquiry that begins today will consider introducing a licensing system to accredit labour hire agencies, and will also look into insecure work, visa abuse and sham contracting arrangements.
The Federal Circuit Court has questioned why the FWBC chose not to prosecute the director of a phoenixed bricklaying company that failed to pay correct pay and entitlements to several "daily hire" workers.
The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal has today handed down its first major ruling on payments, which proposes to set minimum pay rates for truck drivers distributing goods for the major retail chains and in long distance work.
Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.
The ACTU's national executive today passed a resolution calling for a public registry of labour hire companies and a "rigorous" national licensing regime.
In one of the last wages and entitlements cases pursued by the FWBC, a building subcontractor that used a labour-hire company to distance itself from it employment obligations has been fined $145,000 and ordered to backpay $150,000 to more than a dozen workers.
A leading silk has told a gathering of major employers that the federal government should adopt the Harper competition review's recommendation to outlaw agreement clauses that limit employers' use of contractors and labour hire employees.
A full Federal Court has ruled that two housekeepers who were pushed onto Odco-style independent contractor arrangements continued to be employees after the purported conversion, but also found that their employer had not contravened the Fair Work Act's sham contracting provisions.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has found links between the former Victorian Coalition Government's budget cuts and public sector employment practices that could have breached the Fair Work Act.
