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Any possibility of the FWC moving towards the UK employment tribunal's user-pays regime might have been stymied after its highest court found that recently-introduced fees for individuals of up to $2,000 prevented access to justice and were unlawful.

A former Melbourne fruit market owner and his company have been hit with record penalties of more than $660,000 after "arrogantly" ignoring FWO warnings about underpaying a vulnerable Afghan refugee.

Australia must "redress the imbalance in bargaining power" held by workers and unions to reduce economic inequality, according to Federal Opposition workplace spokesperson, Brendan O'Connor.

An FWC full bench has quashed an agreement struck with five Sigma Healthcare recruits, finding the NUW had been denied natural justice when the pharmaceuticals giant failed to provide it with its application for approval on the basis that the union had ceased to be a bargaining representative.

An employer has convinced the FWC to terminate an agreement that it claimed made it uncompetitive because of unaffordable pay rates and non-compliance with the national construction code.

United Voice has launched Federal Court action against security giant Wilson, accusing it of unlawfully allocating overtime payments to Sundays in a bid to avoid paying correct penalty rates to security guards.

United Voice has asked the FWC to go ahead with a preliminary hearing on whether metalworkers are a suitable comparator in their equal pay claim for early childhood workers, but the IEU says it won't await the result.

The FWC has temporarily restrained a union from taking industrial action after accepting it was not genuinely seeking an agreement when a delegate made the "somewhat unusual" suggestion that the company shift its workers to a labour supply or contracting arrangement managed by him.

An employer that took away most of a pregnant cashier's rostered shifts after $300 in shortfalls has been ordered to compensate her after the FWC ruled that the resultant 75% reduction in her pay amounted to a repudiation of her employment contract.

The FWC today gave a strong signal that it is anxious to bring to a head Coles employee Penny Vickers' bid to terminate the supermarket giant's enterprise agreement, acknowledging criticism that the case had dragged on before granting the night-fill worker an extension to supply supporting documents.