Fifty retrenched employees are suing of one of the world's largest defence contractors for alleged underpayment of leave and redundancy entitlements expected to exceed $1 million, with some veteran workers arguing that AWA transitional instruments continue to apply.
Employers with workers on annualised salaries have only to pay superannuation on standard hours at ordinary rates of pay, a full Federal Court led by Chief Justice James Allsop has ruled.
The FWO has launched a test case against the operator of a pop-up toy store, seeking to reverse the onus of proof for underpayments and rely for the first time on serious contraventions provisions that potentially expose the company and its director to 10 times the ordinary maximum penalties.
A veteran bank teller with grandchild caring responsibilities has persuaded the FWC that it would be unreasonable for her position to be relocated to branches requiring extra driving time of 70 minutes each day.
The head of La Trobe University's Law School has accused the institution's HR executive director of acting beyond her remit and taking disproportionate disciplinary action in breach of its agreement by suspending him following complaints by an IR academic and a law lecturer.
The FWC has affirmed BHP's right to introduce roster changes recognising "lifestyle arrangements" and made a call on what constitutes "significant" support for them, after the CFMMEU failed to establish that an agreement clause only allows for bottom-up instigation.
The CFMMEU's construction division says senior NSW officials at the centre of a new ABCC court action have denied alleged threatening conduct, such as warning a crane company to "agree with everything" in a deal as "you don't want your blokes offsite, equipment damaged, cranes wrecked".
In what is believed to be an Australian-first, the Victorian CFMMEU is seeking penalties of more than $4 million against four police officers and the civil construction giant McConnell Dowell for allegedly stopping union safety officials from inspecting "high-risk work" at a level-crossing removal project.
The FWO must pay half the legal costs of a Norwegian shipping company accused of short-changing 60 crew, the Federal Court chastising the watchdog for "doggedly" pushing to hold it liable even though it already repaid them, fully cooperated and could not have known of the contraventions.
