A judge has granted Qantas an injunction temporarily blocking the Fair Work Commission from hearing a case brought by the union for the airline’s stood-down aircraft maintenance engineers, saying the issues raised in the case had potentially wide ramifications for all Australian businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
An appeals court has dismissed a challenge by businessman and prolific inventor Kia Silverbrook to a finding that he was jointly liable to pay a $9.3 million penalty notice issued by the ATO for unpaid Pay As You Go tax.
Australia’s competition regulator has asked technology companies, news outlets and other stakeholders to grapple with some of the complex issues required to develop the Government’s new mandatory code, which will see digital giants such as Google and Facebook forced to bargain with publishers and pay for news content.
The law firm facing scrutiny over its legal fees in a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities will argue that if it is found liable for any misconduct in the running of the case at an upcoming trial, the litigation funder and the barristers it briefed share in the blame.
The Victorian bill that would allow class action lawyers to charge contingency fees remains on the agenda, despite being delayed by reduced parliamentary sittings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
German cladding manufacturer 3A Composites is pushing forward with a bid to close a class action over allegedly combustible cladding to registered group members, arguing that a recent appeals court decision does not bar class closure in this case.
The operators of three Hero Sushi outlets have been fined a record $891,000 for underpaying staff and providing false records to the Fair Work Ombudsman to cover up what a judge referred to as wage “fraud”.
Qantas employees who have been stood down due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are not entitled to access sick leave or compassionate leave, a court has ruled, with a union looking to appeal the decision.
Australian litigation funder Omni Bridgeway has thrown its support behind a legislative ban on common fund orders in class action proceedings as well as a law that would block class actions from being brought on a contingency fee basis.
A court has granted a request from Grosvenor Litigation Services, the funder that backed two class actions against Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal, to suppress the details of a co-funding agreement with Vannin Capital.
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