A Federal Court full court majority has given a broad meaning to a section in the Fair Work Act's general protections that says employees must be "able to complain" to establish a breach of their workplace rights.
A former Melbourne Water advisor is accusing the utility of forcing him to take domestic violence leave and failing to provide a promised permanent job after he disclosed that he was experiencing family violence.
A judge has today accepted the ABCC's view that the construction union's lengthy rap sheet should influence the penalty for a relatively minor breach, but has declined to impose a personal payment order on the official involved.
A full Federal Court has largely dismissed the CFMMEU's broad-ranging appeal against more than $300,000 in fines imposed for attempting to force a contractor into signing a union-approved deal, agreeing only that publication orders served no purpose and that too much was made of an "eenie meenie miney mo!" text message.
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.
The CEPU has been fined $445,000 for historic reporting breaches, a Federal Court judge observing that the penalty would have been higher had the union not moved to clean up its act by employing a compliance officer.
The Federal Court has today ordered the AWU to pay an $18,000 penalty for pressing charges under its rules against two members who refused to support industrial action against Orica.
Rotary International's "egregious" dismissal of a Sydney-based manager who initiated an adverse action claim has earned it a $50,000 fine from a judge who singled out the organisation's US-based No.2 for her role in a breach that "struck at the heart" of Australian workplace laws.
A court's imposition of $200,000 in fines on the CFMMEU for unlawful pickets that might have caused "some very small loss of productivity" underlines the heavy sanctions construction unions face for such actions under the legislation that re-established the ABCC after the 2016 double dissolution election.
