An employer took adverse action against two union delegates when it retrenched them four hours before the deadline for voluntary redundancies, a court has found.
The Federal Court is continuing to order CFMMEU officials to pay penalties out of their own pockets, rejecting arguments that two first offenders and one organiser no longer employed by the union should have their fines suspended.
A dumpling chain's HR manager was knowingly concerned in its Fair Work Act contraventions and "did not simply act as a conduit", the Federal Court has held in a liability judgment, finding she also instructed and trained a colleague in a payroll scam using both accurate and inaccurate records.
A full Federal Court has more than halved fines imposed on the CFMMEU for picketing a crane company over a sacked delegate, while also binning orders requiring the delegate to personally pay a $3500 penalty despite it not being part of the case against him.
A judge has blasted a company's request for no penalty for flouting IR laws, describing it as "one of the most extraordinary submissions, if not the most extraordinary submission" on fines he had heard in more than 15 years.
A judge irked by a multinational company's attempt to cast its underpaying subsidiary's award breaches as the court's "alternate interpretation" has imposed a near-maximum fine.
Some Australian universities have engaged in "passive resistance" when questioned over employee underpayments and record-keeping, according to Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker.
The ABCC might be gone, but its legacy continues, with the Federal Court fining the CFMMEU and six officials more than $300,000 for entry breaches on a highway upgrade in 2018.