The CFMMEU will this week seek to intervene in a class action pursuing leave entitlements for thousands of Workpac's on-hire casual black coal mine workers, at a hearing expected to also deal with the company's bid to block another casual, Robert Rossato, from winning entitlements.
Ahead of a hearing into Workpac's bid to stop casuals winning leave entitlements, Adero Law says more than 600 mineworkers have already joined a new class action against the labour supplier that seeks to claw back up to $84 million for about 7000 on hire casuals.
After providing $150,000 to settle an underpayments claim brought by five fruit pickers last year, labour hire company Agri Labour Australia is facing a new claim from 26 seasonal workers alleging they were short-paid more than $200,000.
The CFMMEU says two pared-back production and maintenance BHP agreements awaiting approval in the FWC would create an "in-house, cut-price labour hire workforce" and a "template for the mining industry to get around Skene".
The RTBU is targeting a labour hire company's training school and its top executives with a backpayment claim for unremunerated "on-the-job" learning, potentially covering hundreds of past and present participants that the union characterises as "employees".
Labour hire company Spinifex Recruiting has again come under fire for its reliance on a "misnamed" temporary employment agreement, with an FWC full bench rejecting its argument that it did not dismiss a casual worker because its client merely exercised its discretion to terminate her assignment.
Class action law firm Adero says it believes labour supplier One Key Workforce wound up owing more than 2000 mineworkers on casual contracts far more than the $38 million sum estimated by administrators, as it prepares to file a claim holding its parent company liable as their "true employer".
In an important interlocutory ruling, the Federal Court has today restrained mining giant BHP Coal from stopping a reinstated labour hire mineworker returning to the job at its Bowen Basin coal mine.
Toll's failure to specify that it would not recognise a worker's prior service with a labour hire company has left it open to his unfair dismissal claim, with the FWC finding he met the minimum employment period as the transfer of his work established a connection between his new and old employer.
A lawyer representing five labour hire fruit pickers who withdrew an underpayments test case after winning a $150,000 settlement says he would welcome a "global settlement" for other claimants, while the employer accuses the NUW of funding the litigation in an effort to extend its patch.
