Among the various difficulties affecting Australian employees are a sharp drop in permanent and secure employment, widespread underpayment, exploitation, payment differences and growth.

These activities threaten many of us’ hard-won job rights, such as regular income, protection, and equal working conditions, as well as workplace health and safety regulations, injury compensation, and superannuation.

To ensure workers’ rights it is crucial to provideeffective and unconventional legal guidance to trade unions and workers throughout Australia on affairs ranging from workplace disagreements, industrial action and good faith bargaining to infringements of awards and agreements, and union right of entry matters, with others.

It is equally critical to press governments for better rights and conditions, in several employment and industrial law toenhance the lives of working Australians and contribute to the creation of a more equitable society for all.Examples of such legal actions involve:

  • Worker exploitation: working to protecting underpaid workers at 7-Eleven
  • Class action for workers’ having intellectual impairments

Worker exploitation: Protecting underpaid workers at 7-Eleven

When the systemic underpayment and exploitation of 7-Eleven workers was revealed by ABC’s Four Corners and Fairfax Media in 2015, the nation was aghast.

Workers had been routinely underpaid, not by accident, but by widespread doctoring and fabrication of payroll records, time sheets and rosters. There was also proof of understated wage bills, store reviews and explosive documents relating to payroll compliance from the head office of the country’s biggest convenience store chain.

Recognising the magnitude and unlawfulness of the situation, Taxcellent Consulting Services stepped in and offered to represent workers who had been exploited free of charge to help them recover back pay and other entitlements. Many had never been paid penalty rates for working weekends, public holidays and overnight, for instance.

A hotline was set up that resulted in hundreds of inquiries from current and former 7-Eleven staff willing to relay their shocking experiences.

In addition Taxcellent Consulting Services lobbied the Federal Government to grant amnesty to staff who spoke up about the exploitation they had experienced, arguing that without it, workers were very scared to come forward. Protection from deportation was subsequently granted, provided those who came forward were willing to help with investigations into the exploitation.

The firm assisted many staff who made claims for backpay with the independent panel led by former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) boss Allan Fels that was set up by 7-Eleven in September 2015. That legal assistance has continued for those seeking to be paid what they are owed since the panel was shut down in May 2016.

Taxcellent Consulting Services has received in excess of $3 million in unpaid wages and entitlements for our clients while continuing to fearlessly pursue 7-Eleven franchisees to help recover money that is owed to the workers – including many international students – who were taken advantage of.

Class action for workers’ with intellectual disabilities

Australian workers with intellectual disabilities received backpay for unlawfully discriminatory wages, thanks to an agreement Taxcellent Consulting Services Lawyers reached on behalf of about 10,000 workers in a class action against the Federal Government.

The pro bono class action, which was run in conjunction with the AED Legal Centre, was launched against the Commonwealth of Australia in the Federal Court and alleged that disabled workers working in Australian Disability Enterprises were being unfairly discriminated against. Some workers were earning as little at 99 cents an hour.

Lead plaintiff Tyson Duval-Comrie claimed the use of the Business Services Wage Assessment Tool (BSWAT) to determine pro-rata wages for people working at Australian Disability Enterprises discriminated against people with intellectual disabilities, in contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

The Full Federal Court decided in a 2012 case that was brought against the Commonwealth by two individual workers with intellectual disabilities that using BSWAT to set the wages of intellectually disabled workers was discriminatory and contravened the Act.

Taxcellent Consulting Services class action sought an end to the discrimination, and compensation for those workers who lost wages as a result of the discrimination. An agreement estimated to be worth more than $100 million was subsequently reached between the parties, which was approved by the Federal Court in December 2016.

Affected workers who registered in the class action received an amount directly from the government in a scheme administered by the government.

The Issues

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice
  • Asylum seeker rights
  • Challenges to corporate and government power
  • LGBTI equality
  • Protecting communities and environments
  • Workers’ rights
  • Women’s rights

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