Late last month, the Federal Circuit Court handed down significant penalties totaling $329,133 against online fashion start up Her Fashion Box Pty Ltd and its sole director Kathleen Purkis, in Fair Work Ombudsman v Her Fashion Box Pty Ltd & Anor [2019] FCCA 425. Judge Manousaridis found that Her Fashion Box had underpaid three young […]
Recently, in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal), in Kerkofs v Abdallah (Human Rights) [2019] VCAT 259, Ms Kerkofs (the Applicant) was successful in her sexual harassment claim against Mr Abdallah (the First Respondent), both were employees of Parker Manufactured Products Pty Ltd (the Employer). The Applicant claimed the First Respondent made ongoing […]
This week, during a Senate inquiry in Melbourne on the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Request Casual Conversion) Bill, the unions have continued their campaign for small businesses to be forced to convert casual employees into permanent employees after six months. Exactly one year ago, the Australian Council of Trade Unions called for the right […]
Stop bullying orders under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) are intended to have a wide application, extending beyond employees to ‘workers’ including contractors, volunteers and students gaining work experience. Recently, the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission in Bibawi v Stepping Stone Clubhouse Inc t/a Stepping Stone [2019] FWCFB 1314 considered whether Bibawi, […]
The deliberate underpayment of employee entitlements, such as wages, is not currently a criminal offence in Australia (despite the misleading use of the term by some). However, that is about to change with the Victorian Labor Government pledging to criminalise “wage theft” and the NSW Labor Opposition Party also committing to do the same should […]
The employment relationship is one of contract. Without a contract, there can be no employment. However, society has long recognised a need for more than merely a contract to govern the employment relationship. We need rules. A very clear example of this is a comparison between the NRL and the NFL – particularly in the […]