Justice Anna Katzmann

A three-year court battle over PepsiCo’s Monster Munch trade mark has been resolved, with Monster Energy negotiating the removal of some beverage products that would have been covered by the mark.C

A Canberra massage parlour that systematically underpaid, intimidated and exploited migrant workers, including by threatening to kill their family members if they complained, has been hit with a $1 million penalty. 

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”.

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.

The collapsed companies behind dumpling chain Din Tai Fung have been hit with over $3.8 million in penalties after a judge found they engaged in a “a calculated scheme to rob employees of their hard-earned wages and deceive the authorities”.

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 Seven Network to pay $35,000 to a man who said he was defamed by the broadcaster, finding that he “spat towards” but not at the alleged rape victim of rugby league footballer Jarryd Hayne. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman has won its underpayments case against restaurant chain Sushi Bay and its director, with a judge finding the company forced migrant workers to pay back their entitlements in cash in a “calculated and institutional effort” to conceal wrongdoing. 

The judge who found that disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith committed war crimes in Afghanistan did not show “full consideration of the presumption of innocence” in his defamation case, an appeals court has heard. 

Independent Sydney member Alex Greenwich and politician Mark Latham have failed to resolve their defamation stoush out of court over a “notorious” homophobic tweet by the NSW One Nation leader.