Coles and Woolworths estimate they will need to remediate underpaid workers up to $780 million, following a complex judgment in two class actions and regulatory proceedings handed down last week.
A judge has criticised the “unacceptably complex” trial of two regulatory cases and two underpayments class actions against Coles and Woolworths, delivering a ruling whose significance for the workers is not yet clear.
On the first day of trial in parallel class actions and regulatory proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman panned the payment systems adopted by Woolworths and Coles for salaried managers, saying they were “entirely foreign” to the industrial award and that the supermarket giants had “no meaningful proper records” for overtime.
The High Court has unanimously dismissed Western Power’s challenge to a judgment which found the state-owned electricity supplier breached its duty of care to inspect power poles on private land and was partly liable for property damage from the 2014 Perth Hills bushfire.
The High Court will hear a challenge by Western Power to an appeals court judgment which found that the state-owned electricity supplier breached its duty of care to inspect power poles on private land and was partly liable for property damage from the 2014 Perth Hills bushfire.