In a NSW Supreme Court decision, Fairfax applied for an injunction to restrain a former employee from working for Yahoo!7. The employee commenced with Fairfax in 2009. In October 2011, he was promoted and subsequently signed another contract with Fairfax. The contract contained a restraint clause that restrained the employee from working for a competitor […]
Justice White of the Federal Court has held that an employer who had made an employee redundant whilst on parental leave had not discriminated against the employee. The employee was employed in the position of Marketing Manager. Whilst the employee was on parental leave, the employer proceeded to make the position redundant. In considering whether […]
There have been a number of cases moving through State courts where parties have tried to enforce restraint clauses against former and even prospective employees. These cases provide some important lessons to employers who are seeking to enforce restraint clauses. Network Ten Pty Ltd v Seven Network (Operations) Ltd In this high profile case before […]
A principal contractor has been found liable for injuries to one of its subcontractor’s employees after the principal contractor took over a higher level of responsibility for the safe systems of work to be undertaken by the subcontractor. The employee of the subcontractor was engaged to dismantle scaffolding and fell 8 metres onto a concrete […]
In the recent case of Sagona v R & C Piccolo Investments Pty Ltd and Ors, the Federal Circuit Court has ordered the employer and its husband and wife owners to pay $235,000 to an employee who was found to have been discriminated against after she announced that she was pregnant. Background The Applicant in […]
In a recent case before the Fair Work Commission, it was confirmed that breaching a ‘cardinal’ safety rule was a valid reason for dismissing an employee. Interestingly, the employer did not actually rely on the employee’s breach of its safety rules as the reason for his dismissal. Instead it relied on the employee’s repeated dishonest […]
The Fair Work Commission has dismissed an employee’s application for unfair dismissal after the employee provided confidential documents belonging to his employer to his union and to a journalist. The employee was also found to have made disparaging remarks about the CEO of the organisation to other employees. As a result of the employee leaking […]
In The Maritime Union of Australia v DP World Sydney Limited, the Fair Work Commission considered the ability of the employer to unilaterally reject backdated medical certificates based on the wording of an applicable enterprise agreement. The Union asserted that the term ‘backdated medical certificate’ related to a certificate ‘which had been falsely dated so […]
The New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission has decided that a public servant who admitted to touching five of his colleagues breasts’ at a work Christmas function should be reinstated to his position. Facts The employee had consumed a considerable volume of alcohol before attending a workplace function with a number of his work colleagues, […]
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission has ruled that a public servant who admitted to touching five of his colleagues breasts’ at a work Christmas function should be reinstated to his position. The evidence in the case included that the a public servant had consumed a considerable volume of alcohol before attending a workplace function and […]