Retail chain Sunglass Hut has agreed to backpay 620 workers almost $2.3 million after admitting it underpaid its part-time staff in stores across Australia for six years.
The liquidators of failed Gold Coast investment group Octaviar have been given the thumbs up to reject over $900 million in proofs of debt from two of the firm’s subsidiaries after the Queensland Supreme Court ruled they had received competent legal advice on the matter and were justified in the rejections.
The judge overseeing competing employment class actions on behalf of casual coal miners against WorkPac has ordered the law firms running the cases to consider a proposal to jointly run the proceedings.
A former BlueScope global health and safety manager wants to add an indirect gender discrimination claim to his employment case against the steel giant, alleging he was overlooked for a senior role because the company wanted to fill its diversity quota.
US prenatal genetic test maker Ariosa Diagnostics has won its bid to appeal a ruling that its Harmony test infringed a patent owned by rival Sequenom.
Expect increasing emphasis by judges on how much class action members will pocket, as scrutiny of settlements in representative proceedings continues to ramp up, says King & Wood Mallesons in the law firm’s latest class action report.
A judge has permanently banned the director of financial services firm Gallop International from the industry and proposed a record $3 million fine after the corporate watchdog brought enforcement action alleging $40 million of investors’ money disappeared from Gallop’s bank account.
Prosecutors are weighing criminal charges over alleged cartel conduct the subject of a price-fixing case by the ACCC against BlueScope Steel and former general manager of sales Jason Ellis, a judge has revealed in rejecting a bid by the competition watchdog to suppress details of its case.
The plaintiffs firms running rival shareholder class actions against construction giant Lendlease have pitched a proposal to join their competing cases, a plan that should find favour with the judge overseeing the cases, who recently forced the consolidation of three duplicate class actions against failed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson.
The ABC is challenging a court ruling last month that rejected its bid to access documents behind the Australian Federal Police’s warrant to search its headquarters and partially blocked an application to amend claims in its case over the legality of the raid.