Employment

A judge has dismissed an urgent application to block Qantas from taking disciplinary action against unvaccinated employees, but the airline has committed to extending their leave with pay until a challenge to its COVID-19 vaccination policy can be heard.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been hit with a $45 million lawsuit by the Finance Sector Union for allegedly failing to provide thousands of employees with paid rest breaks for at least six years.

Labour on-hire and recruitment company CoreStaff has settled a class action alleging it lured workers to Australia from Papua New Guinea with the promise of long-term work, only to terminate their employment agreements less than three years after they relocated.

A law firm has escaped an order for costs sought by a Melbourne city council that argued the firm had turned a blind eye to a client’s lack of credibility in an unfair dismissal case.

Herbert Smith Freehills has picked up a leading work health and safety lawyer from Clyde & Co to join the Big Six law firm in Sydney as special counsel.

Switzer Financial Group has sued a former senior adviser, claiming he sent a defamatory email to a client accusing the firm -- run by financial commentator Peter Switzer -- of lacking concern about a conflict of interest.

Legislation being advanced by the Morrison government that would allow religious statements of belief to override laws that bar discrimination “waters down long-standing and hard-fought protections” and clashes with international human rights law, the country's peak legal body has said.

Telstra is liable for the “sickening” conduct of a former employee who accessed confidential contact information to launch a four-year campaign of sexual harassment against his next-door neighbours, a new lawsuit alleges.

Last year brought economic growth and success for law firms, but 2021 was not only marked with good news. A slew of law firms were dragged into litigation by disgruntled ex-clients, with some paying out millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits accusing them of giving bad advice.

The ACCC will seek a higher penalty against Employsure over misleading Google advertisements, after a judge found the consumer regulator's proposed $5 million penalty was inappropriate and instead ordered the specialist workplace relations consultancy to pay $1 million.