The Fair Work Ombudsman has asked a Victorian Government agency to urgently review the way it engages workers, after an investigation revealed it might be "misclassifying" employees as independent contractors.
The Federal Court will examine the multi-level marketing operations of an international networking business after the Federal Circuit Court ruled that a sham contracting case launched by the FWO was complex and lengthy enough to go to a higher authority.
In a development that threatens the maritime unions' grip on crucial Western Australian ports, two separate companies are offering tugboat workers "partnership" agreements that fall outside traditional employment arrangements.
FWC Vice President Adam Hatcher will head up a full bench to deal with the ACTU's wide-ranging casual and part-time employment claims, as well as proposed employer variations, after Commission president Iain Ross accepted they were "common issues" across the modern awards that the tribunal is reviewing after four years of operation.
The Federal Circuit Court has drawn a link between s-xual assault laws and the Fair Work Act's sham contracting prohibitions in finding that a floor repairing business was not "reckless" as to whether five of its independent contractors were actually employees.
Qantas has won an appeal against a tribunal finding that two of its customer service agents had a right to indefinitely maintain a job-sharing arrangement.
A long history of employee complaints and the need to send a strong message to the hair and beauty industry that "it does not pay to underpay workers" has led to a hairdressing chain being fined $70,000 for short-changing an apprentice more than $8,000.
The ACTU will push for the Fair Work Commission's four-year modern award review to create a common clause giving more than two million casual workers the right to become permanent employees.
A maths teacher employed as a casual for one month is suing the public school's principal and his supervisor for defamation after they assessed him – using a pro forma departmental form - as suitable only for limited casual teaching roles.
A court has rejected a discrimination complaint from an indigenous graduate employee of the former DEEWR, after accepting that the department's prompt, reasonable and informal response to a racially offensive remark should have ensured the employee wasn't injured in the enjoyment of her work.
