A former chief sustainability officer is suing a major property group for more than $800,000 – including a retention payment – in an adverse action case accusing it of dressing-up a post-takeover redundancy as a dismissal to avoid paying his full entitlements.
The High Court has affirmed the primacy of contractual terms in determining employment relationships, finding a construction worker was an employee of a labour hire company and that two truck drivers were independent contractors despite decades of exclusive service to a solitary business.
Food delivery business Menulog has told the FWC that some couriers working for its competitors might be engaged under employment contracts rather than as independent contractors.
The FSU is planning to apply for good faith bargaining orders against Cbus, alleging the major industry super fund is engaging in capricious and unfair conduct that includes pushing individual contracts for some employees.
IR academics say the High Court's "revolutionary" approach in Rossato signals an intention to rewrite the rules for determining employment status, with potentially dire consequences for gig workers and others seeking to challenge their characterisation.
The Andrews Labor Government will start working on State-based standards and regulation for work in the gig economy, after failing to win support for national action from the Morrison Government.
The Menulog food delivery business will apply to the FWC for a new modern award covering the on-demand industry, as part of a landmark decision to take the first step toward an employment model based on minimum wages and conditions.
The High Court is likely to hear the Personnel Contracting/ZG Operations and Ridd cases in the second half of the year, after setting timetables for submissions to be completed by early June.
The Fair Work Commission has declared a provisional view that it will agree to Telstra's request to terminate thousands of so-called "zombie" statutory individual agreements from the Work Choices era.
