A Federal Court majority has today dealt a hammer blow to NSW's and Victoria's pursuit of employers alleged to have avoided long service leave entitlements to casuals, ruling that a tribunal's reading of the Fair Work Act's LSL provision produced an "absurdity" whereby employers received "no warning" they could be held criminally liable for supposed non-payments.
The FWC has speculated that an energy company in the midst of a $1.5 billion buying spree "presumably has a contingency plan in place" after rejecting its bid to have thousands of new employees covered by a 12-year-old deal that would leave some on below-award wages.
The Albanese Government has outlined for the first time the details of how it might implement its "same job, same pay" proposal that it framed to ensure labour hire arrangements are not used to undercut employees' pay and conditions.
A full bench has vacated directions to make way for a care and community sector expert panel to consider whether to extend coverage of an education award to rope-in workers in independently-operated student boarding houses.
The Catholic Council for Employment Relations is calling for a 7.2% boost to the minimum wage and the rates of many award-reliant workers to help close the poverty gap by 2030, arguing the FWC wrongly rejected its stance last year on what constitutes a safety net.
The Albanese Government will urge the FWC's minimum wage panel to award an inflation-matching increase to the lowest-paid workers, but will stop short of pushing for an across-the-board increase for workers on higher award classifications.
New RBA analysis says productivity and wages have slowed for employers in heavily award-reliant sectors and they are "seemingly less likely to attract staff and grow", but the Centre for Future Work says the answer is "stronger awards" and a collective bargaining recovery.
A dumpling chain's HR manager was knowingly concerned in its Fair Work Act contraventions and "did not simply act as a conduit", the Federal Court has held in a liability judgment, finding she also instructed and trained a colleague in a payroll scam using both accurate and inaccurate records.
The FWC's minimum wage review should order an increase that exceeds inflation, providing a real wage rise for the lowest paid, according to UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy.