A former Qantas cabin crew manager seeking millions in damages over alleged historic sexual discrimination and harassment has been refused leave to separately pursue Maurice Blackburn and a former principal over their roles in a settlement reached with the airline in 2008.
The Federal Court has opted to assign to a referee consideration of two stevedores' "bewildering", multi-million-dollar compensation claim following unlawful bans by the CFMMEU's maritime division in 2017.
The ABCC has enjoyed another mixed result in its campaign to bring the CFMMEU to heel, a Federal Court judge agreeing to impose personal payment orders against three officials involved in picketing a building site but rejecting argument that the union's past record should necessarily attract maximum penalties.
A full Federal Court led by Chief Justice James Allsop has expressed disquiet about how employment relationships involving labour hire companies and the rising gig economy are assessed, noting that only respect for decisions by other appeal courts prevented it reaching a different conclusion about a backpacking labourer's status.
In a significant ruling on the standing of independent contractors, a full Federal Court has upheld an appeal by two truck drivers pursuing unpaid leave and superannuation entitlements after working exclusively for a multinational company for almost 40 years.
Melbourne's coronavirus outbreak and resultant six-week lockdown has torpedoed plans for the Federal Court to conduct a physical hearing of a general protections matter.
The FWC has agreed to hear a senior public sector lawyer's claims he was denied pay rises after being "admonished" for wearing Zara brand shoes, despite a court finding his employer conducted two procedurally fair investigations before sacking him for misconduct.
Meriton Property Services has hit back at its former general counsel's claim that he was unlawfully sacked after allegedly refusing managing director Harry Triguboff's direction to lie in an affidavit, claiming that the scenario was "contrived" in order to pursue damages through the court.
The operator of the "robo-terminal" at Melbourne's Webb Dock says it is re-activating a damages claim against the CFMMEU which seeks to recover $80 million in losses and foregone income from a picket in late 2017.
A Full Federal Court has in rejecting a big employer's appeal of two rulings affirmed that a worker's reasonable expectation of ongoing employment helps determine their entitlement to redundancy payments.
