Compliance page 174 of 175

The Federal Court has found that shifting seasonal workers to a new employer after they'd worked 40 hours a week was a "sham" arrangement to avoid paying overtime.

Jetstar unlawfully deducted training costs from the wages of cadet pilots, despite warnings against doing so from its external IR consultant and its head of flying operations, the Federal Court has revealed in a penalty judgment today.

The FWC has rejected two proposed enterprise agreements because the notices of representational rights provided to employees included extra information that rendered them invalid.

The Federal Court has ordered the CFMEU (construction and general division) and WA branch assistant secretary Joe McDonald to pay a total of $193,600 for their part in an unlawful stopwork at a Pilbara site.

United Voice has asked the Fair Work Commission to order Glad Cleaning Services Pty Ltd to produce employment records for cleaners at several Melbourne CBD offices, after allegedly overhearing the company's HR manager on a mobile phone during a tram ride admitting Glad removed documents before a union inspection.

A Chinese company that brought 24 workers to Australia to dismantle machinery and paid them just a portion of their total wage during the four-plus months they were here – with the balance then delivered on their return to China – has been fined $14,850.

A new paper recommends changes to the Fair Work Act to provide stronger protections for students undertaking vocational placements and work experience, suggesting they have become the new "phenomenon" of the workplace in the 21st century following the casualisation of the 1980s and 1990s.

The Coalition has largely succeeded in neutralising IR as a 2013 federal election issue by promising to retain – at least for one term – Labor's Fair Work framework, but Australia's two major parties are still going to the September 7 poll with some significant policy differences, including on paid parental leave, right of entry, and construction industry regulation. Workplace Express compares their IR policies and those of the Greens, whose future hold on the Senate balance of power is uncertain.

The Federal Court has stayed a $300,000 Federal Magistrates Court penalties and backpay order against a call centre, while imposing a conditional security payment, acknowledging the employer's chances of a successful appeal are "not strong".

Fair Work Building and Construction chief executive Leigh Johns has challenged those who say the inspectorate should have intervened in the Grocon Supreme Court proceedings to identify the powers it could have relied upon, while the main players are about to head back for more talks with FWA President, Justice Iain Ross.