An accountancy firm that knowingly failed to maintain current award rates of pay in its MYOB payroll system has been found accessorially liable for an employer's underpayments.
Caltex has established a $20 million "assistance fund" for franchise employees who have been underpaid, but insists that its franchising model does not need fixing.
In a rare decision on stand-down provisions under the Fair Work Act, the Federal Court has ruled that a contractor failed to comply with its obligation to pay its permanent part-time school cleaners normally during the 16 weeks of school holidays.
A court has found an employer underpaid a worker by more than $230,000 because it "recklessly disguised the true legal nature" of a 20-year-plus employment relationship by classifying him as an independent contractor.
An FWC full bench has refused to overturn the termination of the agreement for the Loy Yang power station and coal mine, after it accepted that the company's commitment to extend employment protections to three years compensated for an error in the initial tribunal ruling.
Sacking a transit officer for "excessive force" when he used capsicum spray on a threatening 12-year-old boy was unfair because the employer should have considered demoting him instead, a tribunal has found.
FWC President Iain Ross has asked a full bench to review abandonment of employment clauses in six modern awards after a recent ruling that employers must take the "additional step" of ending the employment relationship when a worker walks off the job.