A Federal Court judge has while fining a franchisor almost $500,000 for deliberately underpaying Taiwanese interns speculated that a recent High Court ruling will impel more parties to agree on penalties rather than go to trial, an "unfortunate by-product" being fewer judgments offering "yardsticks" for future cases.
A-League soccer team Central Coast Mariners says it is surprised to find itself at the centre of a possible test case challenging unpaid trial and training arrangements, in which a player claims it misled and exploited him to secure his services for free when he was in fact an employee.
A growing number of professions are running unlawful internship programs that prey on vulnerable young workers, according to a leading employment lawyer.
Some 10% of unpaid work experience appears to be unlawful, with more than half a million Australians falling victim to it in the past five years, according to new university analysis presented at an IR academics conference in Canberra today.
A university study of international students' employment conditions in food services shows they are receiving as little as $8 an hour and a median of $17, well below the award rate of about $21.
A court has taken an employer to task for making false representations to interns who were told their terms and conditions complied with minimum standards.
The FWO will enlist local employer groups in a three-month auditing blitz of more than 400 businesses in regions where workers are making "persistent" requests for assistance, including Perth, Adelaide and Dandenong.
In a lucrative Christmas/New Year period for the Commonwealth's coffers, the Federal Circuit Court has handed down penalties amounting to more than $580,000 in eight separate cases brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman against companies and their directors for breaches of the Fair Work Act.
Unions NSW has called for a code of practice on unpaid work while an advocacy body wants Australia to import the US test on whether unpaid internships are legal, in response to the NSW Government's moves to promote volunteering.
Giving teenage employees free and discounted pizzas and soft drink instead of wages – a practice belonging "in the dark ages rather than twenty first century Australia" – has cost a pizza franchise operator $335,000 in fines.
