The High Court has agreed to weigh in on the genuine redundancy exclusion under unfair dismissal laws, taking up an appeal of a Federal Court ruling that found employers must first consider redeployment.
Qantas argues it has “no legal responsibility” to compensate baggage handlers who, the High Court has found, the airline unlawfully sacked and replaced with contractors, partly to prevent them from engaging in industrial action.
A group of DP World workers previously found to have been “blindsided” by their dismissal for refusing a mandatory COVID-19 jab have failed in a bid to appeal a decision that found their reinstatement inappropriate.
The High Court had been asked to clarify the extent of protection for employers for genuine redundancies under the Fair Work Act, after an appeals court found the exemption was “not absolute”.
The allowance for genuine redundancies is “not absolute” and employers need to consider measures to redeploy workers, including retraining, an appeals court has said in an unfair dismissal case involving 22 mining workers.
A judge has ordered Qantas to hand over instructions it gave to its solicitors at Herbert Smith Freehills that underpinned advice over the airline’s decision to sack 1,700 ground crew during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A judge has admonished the Transport Workers Union for relying on test cases to decide compensation for 1,700 ground crew who were sacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it should instead bring a class action.
A judge has asked why the union representing Qantas workers did not bring a class action on behalf of 1,700 ground crew who were sacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he ordered the airline’s new CEO to attend settlement talks after losing its High Court appeal.
The High Court will deliver judgment Wednesday in an appeal by Qantas over its decision to sack its ground crew at the height of COVID-19, a ruling that could determine the scope of adverse action protections under the Fair Work Act.
The Full Court has held a Sydney Trains driver who worked the morning after blowing over four times the legal limit is entitled to a rehearing, finding the Fair Work Commission failed to properly consider a section of its own founding legislation.