Education

The former headmaster of exclusive Sydney school Cranbrook has settled a dispute with his former employer after it admitted a public statement concerning his management of misconduct allegations against a teacher “may have caused confusion”, but will press on with a complaint against the ABC over the Four Corners episode that sparked the controversy. 

Global Payments’ plan to acquire Sydney software company School Bytes Learning may substantially lessen competition, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has said in outlining preliminary concerns with the deal.

The University of Sydney has succeeded in a challenge to a finding that an academic was unfairly dismissed after posting to social media a controversial slide of a Nazi swastika superimposed on the Israeli flag, with a majority appeals court finding his union failed to prove the “incendiary” conduct accorded with the standards that entitled him to intellectual freedom.

Slater & Gordon has won the court’s nod to be separately represented at an upcoming settlement approval hearing where it will seek a $12.8 million group costs order for running a shareholder class action against G8 Education.

Swinburne University has underpaid around 1,800 casual staff $2.85 million, the latest university to admit it failed to compensate workers fully.

Sydney lawyer and wealth guru Dominique Grubisa is challenging a finding in an ACCC case that her seminars made misleading statements and has sought to pause the court action until her appeal is heard, a bid a judge has warned won’t be “favourably received” by him.

An underpayments class action brought by postgraduate research candidates at the University of Sydney is facing another summary dismissal bid from the federal government, as the university foreshadows a novel argument that the group members are not employees.

A judge has slapped the University of Melbourne with a $74,590 penalty for taking adverse action against two casual academics to prevent them from claiming payment for extra hours worked.

Australia’s largest childcare centre operator G8 Education has agreed to pay $46.5 million to settle a shareholder class action alleging the company failed to keep investors in the loop about factors affecting its 2017 financial performance, and the firm that ran the case is set to make $13 million after securing the first group costs order in Victoria.

The Australian Law Reform Commission has called for reforms that would do away with a broad exception that allows religious schools to discriminate against students and staff on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.