Industry News

Dominic Powell October 1, 2019 The Age Australia’s largest retail conglomerate Wesfarmers has blamed another payroll error for underpaying workers $15 million just days after the company revealed a similar issue at its hardware retailer Bunnings. In a statement on Tuesday, Wesfarmers said that it found the mistake when it was updating its payroll system, causing about 6000 current and former team members in its industrial and safety division to have been underpaid since 2010. The issues affect staff  at retailer Blackwoods, workwear manufacturer Workwear Group, industrial gas supplier Coregas and health and safety management company Greencap. The $15 million figure largely relates to the underpayment of certain allowances and entitlements, and superannuation related to car allowances. Wesfarmers is working with auditor PwC to repay workers. “These were inadvertent errors but they are deeply regrettable and we apologise sincerely and unreservedly to our team members who have been affected over…

EWIN HANNAN OCTOBER 1, 2019 The Australian Another 18 Subway franchisees have been caught underpaying 167 workers more than $81,000. The results of the latest probe by the Fair Work Ombudsman mean Subway franchisees in three States have been exposed underpaying workers nearly $150,000 over the past two financial years. Half of the underpaid workers were either young or from a migrant background. But financial penalties imposed on the offending franchisees total just $5880, after nine on-the-spot fines for record keeping and pay slip breaches were issued by the regulator. Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said on Tuesday that $81,638.82 in unpaid wages had been recovered for 167 current and previous employees following investigations into 22 Subway franchisees. Inspectors targeted Subway franchisees in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria following requests for assistance from employees and anonymous tip-offs about potential breaches of federal workplace laws. Franchisees failed to pay minimum…

Matt Dathan 30 Sep 2019, SUN UK A TOTAL ban on petrol and diesel cars could be brought forward by five years to 2035 under Tory plans announced yesterday. In a move that risks the fury of millions of motorists, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Government will “look again” at the current 2040 target. Petrol pumps could be consigned to history And he vowed to “thoroughly explore the case for bringing this date forward”. He said it would put rocket-boosters under the UK’s electric car industry at the same time as protecting the environment. It would help achieve the Government’s new legally-binding target to go carbon neutral by 2050, improve air quality and help speed-up Britain’s transition to electric cars. The target of 2035 has been recommended by the Government’s independent advisory Committee on Climate Change. But motorist campaigners accused the Government of pandering to environmentalists and ignoring Britain’s…

Paul Shapiro, Cranbourne Leader October 1, 2019 Video has emerged of the moment a gun-toting desperado held up a frightened Tooradin service station attendant with a sawn-off shotgun before fleeing with cash, cigarettes and a Big M. Jack Rawson walked into the South Gippsland Highway service station shortly after 3am on February 12 with a concealed sawn-off shotgun and followed his victim to the counter where he asked him for the cheapest brand of smokes. Then, while his victim’s back was turned, he calmly pulled out the shotgun, pointed it at his victim, called him a “c*** bitch”, and demanded cigarettes and cash. Rawson fled with $334 worth of smokes and $500 cash before returning to steal a Big M seconds later. Police nabbed Rawson in the back of a car in Dandenong on February 22. Rawson was sitting on a bag of meth when he was arrested. Investigators quizzed…

NATASHA ROBINSON OCTOBER 1, 2019 The Australian A major series of scientific reviews has found little evidence that the consumption of red meat is linked with cancer, diabetes and heart disease, casting doubt on dietary guidelines that recommend curtailing consumption. The research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the journal of the American College of Physicians, finds that nutritional recommendations to reduce red meat consumption are based on “weak, low-certainty evidence” and that there are very few health benefits to cutting meat consumption. The evidence is contrary to World Health Organisation recommendations which advise reducing the consumption of red meat. Australia’s current nutritional guidelines recommend limiting consumption to 455 grams per week, the equivalent of around three average-sized serves. The series of reviews were carried out by a large international research team of physicians, dietitians and public health bodies with the aim of improving the quality of nutritional guidance…

9News Staff Wed, 2 Oct Virginia and New Jersey health officials in the US today each announced a confirmed vaping-related death, bringing the nationwide total to 16. The Virginia death, an adult from the state’s southwest region, was initially reported by Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 26. The New Jersey death, an adult from the northern part of the state, was reported to its health department in August. Fourteen other deaths have been identified nationwide as part of the multistate outbreak of lung injury associated with vaping: two in California, two in Kansas, two in Oregon, and one each in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Nebraska. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that the agency is aware of 805 confirmed and probable cases of lung injury associated with e-cigarette use in 46 states and the US Virgin Islands. A…