The ASU has hit out at the FWO for letting Qantas off with a $390,500 "slap on the wrist" contrition fine for underpaying 640 misclassified head office workers by about $7.1 million, but the airline says its self-reported error also led to about $22 million in overpayments.
The Victorian Government intends to "pierce the corporate veil" with its forthcoming legislation to introduce criminal penalties for the worst cases of underpayment and exploitation.
A group of 10 intensive care specialist doctors are suing Victorian public health service Austin Health for more than $3 million in alleged underpayments plus compensation for humiliation and loss of enjoyment.
The NSW Young Liberals have called on the Federal Coalition to establish a three-strike warning system to deal with employers that unintentionally underpay workers and for employees to "bear some of the risk", in a submission warning against "heavy-handed" policies.
In a case highlighting the dangers of failing to engage with underpayments cases, an employer who did not respond to a claim it short-changed a teenage worker by $8000 must now pay him an additional $240,000 in penalties.
Melbourne's Crown Casino is staring down calls to pay about $4.5 million in employee entitlements owed by the operator of a celebrity restaurant on its premises.
Service station owners who required a visa-dependent employee to hand over his tax refund and cover the cost of drive-offs have been ordered to compensate the former console operator and his fellow-worker wife more than $50,000 after a court found them accessorily liable for underpayments.
The arrangement under which a former driver worked about 30 hours over a 10-month period could not possibly be considered casual employment, Deliveroo has argued in its Federal Circuit Court defence against a sham contracting case.
In an escalation of tension between the CFMMEU and Adero Law over their competing class actions on behalf of black coal mineworkers allegedly misclassified as casuals by Workpac, the union is asking the courts to compel the law firm to use "reasonable endeavours" to cooperate.
