Cases challenging the NSW government’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for the state’s police officers, teachers and healthcare workers are exceptional enough to warrant production by the government of documents presented to state cabinet before the public health order, a court has heard.
An appellate panel of the Fair Work Commission has upheld an aged care worker’s termination for refusing a flu vaccine, but a full-throttled dissent by one commissioner warns Australians against “a system of medical apartheid and segregation”.
NSW Health wants to amend its defence to an underpayments class action on behalf of 24,000 junior doctors, bringing claims that the lead applicant is barred from seeking compensation for group members under industrial relations law.
An ancient history academic and lawyer has filed a class action against the federal government, claiming he and other postgraduate research candidates were underpaid by major Australian universities.
A judge hearing a $2 million dispute between a former tenured professor and the University of New South Wales has lamented the lengthy pleadings filed in Fair Work cases, saying “everything but the kitchen sink seems to be thrown in, without any discrimination”.
BHP Billiton has resolved a case by an employee who claimed the company breached the Fair Work Act by sacking her for alleged social media harassment of a co-worker who failed to self isolate after an interstate trip at the start of the first COVID-19 wave.
Qantas has lost its second attempt to delay a hearing on further relief pending an appeal in its outsourcing spat with the Transport Workers Union, with a judge finding a stay would prejudice the union more than the airline.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has denied the Fair Work Ombudsman is entitled to seek compensation for its underpayment of staff, saying its $330 million remediation to affected employees fully answers the regulator’s case.
Government-owned Airservices Australia has appealed an order that it pay $72,450 in fines to a civilian air traffic controllers union for withdrawing guidelines for standby shifts, which a judge found was a “serious breach” of an enterprise agreement.
Qantas has filed a bid to delay a hearing on penalty after a judge found the airline outsourced ground operations partly to prevent employees engaging in industrial action, but the TWU has said a stay would be “unfair” to 1,600 former ground staff.