Clive Palmer faces unfair dismissal claim over “fat c—‘ taunt; eBay and Vend accept bitcoins: Midday Roundup

Billionaire politician Clive Palmer is facing an unfair dismissal claim from a former employee at his Queensland resort after he allegedly referred to him as a “fat c—” before sacking him in June, reports Fairfax.

Peter Yates, who had worked at Palmer’s Coolum resort as an assistant food and beverage manager since 1998, told the Fair Work Commission Palmer pointed him out to at least two other staff members and said words to the effect of “I want him gone”.

Palmer allegedly stated: “The one on the forklift. The fat c—“.

Yates claims 10 minutes after this incident he was sacked by the general manager of the resort.

He claims he has yet to be paid his annual leave, long service leave and other entitlements, and has not received a letter of termination from the company.

Bitcoin accepted at eBay and Vend

Auction site eBay and point-of-sale software provider Vend will both start accepting and integrating bitcoin payments.

eBay’s payment processor subsidiary Braintree announced customers will be able to use the digital currency to purchase items in the “coming months” through a partnership with bitcoin payment processor Coinbase.

Cloud-based point-of-sale platform Vend also announced it had partnered with a bitcoin payment provider, DC POS, to allow Australian retailers to have bitcoin functionality.

Vend said thousands of small and independent retailers operating on Vend’s point-of-sale system will now be able to integrate the currency into their operations.

“Bitcoin is an efficient way to accept electronic payment for goods and services with transaction fees at 0.5%, much less than fees charged to retailers by the big banks,” said Vaughan Rowsell, chief executive and founder of Vend.

“It’s also secure, as bitcoins act like cash so once the transaction has taken place, the money is the retailers. The shop or café is in control of any disputed amount not the credit card provider or the bank.”

Shares down on open

Aussie shares have opened lower this morning, as a weak lead from Wall Street and falling commodity prices influence local investors.

“Two major market adjustments are pulling in opposite directions for local stocks at the moment,” said CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner.

“Commodity prices particularly iron ore, oil and grains are falling as supplies are forecast to increase at rates that will not be met by demand. This is a negative for resource stocks and for Australia’s terms of trade.”

Spooner said the other major adjustment is the strength of the US dollar.

“Last night, the Aussie dollar finally showed signs of a long awaited capitulation against the US dollar. Markets are pricing in the relative strength of the US economy and the beginning of the Federal Reserve’s rate tightening cycle.

“Currency weakness will be the upside of commodity weakness for the Australian economy and will be a supportive influence for many stocks.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 48.6 points to 5559.3 points at 11.43am AEST. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed 49.2 points lower, down 0.88% to 5559 points