As Unions NSW calls for an "ironclad" deportation amnesty for foreign workers involved in wage theft investigations, an IR academic says a complete firewall between the FWO and the Department of Home Affairs would help move the law enforcement focus from migrants to their employers.
The ACTU's policy pitch for the next election will include the right for casual workers to convert to permanent after six months, equal rights for workers in the gig economy and a overhaul of labour hire regulation.
In a decision signalling potential judicial pushback against so-called "sham" agreements, a Federal Court has quashed a two-year-old deal approved by three employees that now covers more than 1000 mining services workers, ruling that the employer made inadequate efforts to explain a document benchmarked against 11 different awards.
A court has found a husband and wife who performed largely home-based clerical work exclusively for one business before their services were further outsourced were employees rather than contractors because the company had an "undoubted authority to control" the relationship.
A cleaner who invoiced as both a sole trader and a company but claims he was an employee is pursuing Woolworths and three contracting businesses for more than $300,000 in underpaid wages and unpaid overtime, annual leave and superannuation he says he should have been paid between 2004 and 2015.
A court has thrown out a labour hire worker's adverse action claim despite rejecting the respondent's argument that it lacked jurisdiction because the truck driver mistakenly identified her employer.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is investigating whether Uber's engagement of drivers complies with Australian workplace laws, in what might be a test of the legal status of gig economy employment arrangements.
A security company must provide United Voice with internal correspondence about its practice of engaging contractors and employees, as the union pursues it for allegedly employing two embassy guards on sham contracts and sacking them when they refused to waive legal rights.