Legal

Business owners need to be aware and prepared for new mandatory product safety reporting requirements that begin 1 January 2011 ACCC deputy chair Peter Kell has warned.

Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer are set to face court over the collapse of One.Tel in 2001 after accounting firm Pitcher Partners filed a statement of claim with the Federal Court against One.Tel seeking $244 million in damages.

Premium Milk Ltd has been approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in a draft decision to re-authorise collective negotiation arrangements for Premium Milk dairy farmer members.

National Australia Bank’s plans to acquire AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd and AXA SA continue to move closer to fruition, with the ACCC seeking ‘market consultation’ over the proposal.

Black and White Cabs of Brisbane will face the Federal Court, Melbourne after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted legal proceedings against the company.

Clive Peeters senior accountant Sonya Causer plead guilty to 24 counts of theft in the Victorian Supreme court yesterday amounting to some $20 million stolen from Clive Peeters accounts.

David Jones is not the only company in hot water over sexual harassment, last week two Airservices Australia employees launched a $1 million plus action over alleged workplace law breaches just hours after an Adelaide business was forced to make a record $466,000 payout to a former employee for sexual harassment.

Asteria Joinery’s director Ryan Marsh was fined $16,900 after a prosecution by the Fair Work Ombudsman for underpaying workers at his company more than $31,000.

Consumer law nationally has been radically changed with the passing of new laws that prohibit standard form consumer contracts which contain unfair terms. These changes are likely to have a significant impact on SMEs and how they interact with their customers.

The Fair Work Act is anything but for small business, with employees calling on ‘General Protection’ provisions within the Fair Work Act to prevent an employer taking fair action against them.

Adelaide based national broadband company Internode has called on the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to end Telstra’s “price squeeze” due to its anti-competitive broadband pricing.

Coles is in hot water from Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon for selling imported cigarettes significantly cheaper than local cigarette brands, undermining the Government’s anti-smoking efforts.

Tony Abbott has abandoned plans to exempt small business from unfair dismissal laws under the belief that the public has no appetite for workplace reform.

Chinese workers recruited for the former Mitsubishi site in Adelaide were paid only $1.90 an hour the Fair Work Ombudsman alleges.

Cotton On, the Geelong-based clothing and retail giant failed to pay 3289 of its employees more than $278,000 for staff attending training out of working hours.

Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman will be making ‘educational visits’ to about 60 businesses in Mosman over the next two weeks to discuss Australian workplace laws.

More than half the employers randomly audited by the Fair Work Ombudsman in Northern Victoria recently failed to comply with federal workplace laws.

The NSW Chief Industralian Magistrate’s Court in Sydney has fined a Sydney telecommunications company $54,000 for underpaying two former workers more than $30,000.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched its first pregnancy discrimination case in the Federal Court, with more women expected to approach the Ombudsman with an awareness campaign.

Whiskas has for some time used a particular shade of purple in their packaging and marketing materials called “Whiskas Purple”, the company then sought to register the colour as a trade mark..