Supermarket giant Woolworths has denied the Fair Work Ombudsman is entitled to seek compensation for its underpayment of staff, saying its $330 million remediation to affected employees fully answers the regulator’s case.
Victoria’s State Revenue Office breached its obligations and denied procedural fairness to a senior solicitor who was fired after an investigation into alleged harassment, the state’s Court of Appeal has found.
In an important ruling that confines the scope of “industrial activity” under the Fair Work Act, the Full Federal Court has overturned a $50,000 fine against the CFMEU and two officials for organising a work stoppage at a Brighton construction site that the union said needed a female toilet.
A history of serial offending by the CFMEU could be factored into a court’s finding on the gravity of later breaches of the Fair Work Act, but not to the extent that the union pays a disproportionate penalty, the Full Federal Court has found in a significant ruling that settles conflicting case law.
A scientist alleging she was fired from the CSIRO for filing sex discrimination and sexual harassment complaints has had the majority of her lawsuit against the government body dismissed, with the court finding she fabricated evidence and that an incident in which she was slapped on the backside with a riding crop by her supervisor and told to “get back to work” did not amount to sexual harassment.