Employment

Despite recent class actions against Medibank and Optus for cybersecurity breaches, class actions over cyber attacks will not become common because they involve “a lot of work for not a lot of money”, a lawyer has predicted.

A judge has cut at least $170,000 from the fees sought by a law firm running a class action on behalf of Drakes Supermarkets store managers who were allegedly underpaid -- the same firm that saw its fees reduced in two similar class actions.

The Albanese government has removed provisions from sex harassment legislation that passed the senate on Friday which would have forced parties to bear their own costs in harassment litigation, after dozens of lawyers expressed “deep concern”.

Keeping up her scrutiny of fee disclosures by Adero Law in employment class actions launched in her court, a judge has questioned whether the law firm breached its fiduciary duty to the lead applicant in litigation against Drakes Supermarkets.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers partner has been taken to court over her alleged involvement in a $3.3 million scheme to defraud her husband's employer to bankroll the couple’s lavish lifestyle, which included a $200,000 Porsche and extensive renovations to their Sydney home.

Sydney advisory and accounting firm Bentleys has been hit with a lawsuit by a former HR adviser alleging sexual assault, harassment and “exhibitionist and shocking behaviour” by a senior executive which left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Qantas has won its application to the High Court to appeal a Full Federal Court finding that it breached the Fair Work Act when it outsourced the work of its ground crew during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A judge has thrown out an underpayments class action against NSW not-for-profit Life Without Borders for failure to advance the case with due diligence and slapped the lead applicant with costs for his "unreasonable" acts during the course of the proceeding.

A judge overseeing two underpayment class actions against supermarket chain Romeo’s has declined to vary a settlement agreement to provide for distribution by Christmas, saying plaintiff firm Adero Law had not taken “all reasonable steps” to facilitate the payments.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and unit CommSec have reached an agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman on liability in enforcement action alleging they knowingly underpaid almost 7,500 employees over $16.4 million.