In a significant win for FWO efforts to extend liability to advisors involved in underpayments, a Full Federal Court has today dismissed an accountancy firm's appeal against penalties imposed last year for failing to ensure a client met its award obligations.
Five migrant fruit pickers at the centre of a $10 million Federal Court claim against a labour hire company and its owners are seeking to be recognised as casuals, alleging their contracts for piecework were invalid and based average take home pay on an unrealistic workload.
On the second of 16 days of FWC hearings into an IEU equal pay claim for early childhood teachers, the union is blaming low wages for a skill shortage in the overwhelmingly female-dominated sector, while the ACTU says the case will test whether the Fair Work Act's equal pay principle can deliver.
Two landmark class actions allege that a BHP Billiton subsidiary induced two labour hire companies to unlawfully engage hundreds of coal mineworkers as casuals and pay them less than the industry award.
The FWC has today rejected union arguments that a pallet service centre's agreement setting wages for "any person engaged to perform work" extends to labour hire workers.
The Reserve Bank has pointed to the concentration of cutting-edge software and information technology in a small number of businesses and narrow labour market segments as a factor behind flat wages growth.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered an immediate 4% pay rise for about 13,000 employees of the former Department of Immigration and Border Protection, after noting they have not received any increases for almost five years.
The Fair Work Commission is missing its internal deadlines for approving enterprise agreements as it copes with an increasing number of complex deals that might need undertakings.
The Fair Work Commission today reaffirmed its view that modest and regular minimum wage increases won't sabotage a robust employment landscape, representing this year's 3.5% hike as an "opportunity to improve relative living standards of the low-paid".
The Fair Work Commission has this morning granted award-reliant workers a 3.5% increase, lifting the national minimum wage by $24.30 a week or 64 cents an hour in this year's annual wage review ruling.
