Employment

Labour hire company Hays Specialist Recruitment has agreed to pay up to $1.325 million to settle an employment class action on behalf of coal miners that has been on foot for five years.

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.

Merivale will fork over $18 million in a proposed settlement to resolve an employment class action against the hospitality giant, of which $8.6 million is sought to be deducted in legal fees and a funder’s commission.

Qantas has been hit with a $250,000 fine for standing down a health and safety representative who directed co-workers to cease unsafe work during COVID-19, with a judge saying the airline’s conduct was “shameful” and designed to “advance its own commercial interests”.

Auto repair giant AMA Group has been hit with a lawsuit by a sales consultant who says she was sexually harassed by a manager to the point of a psychological breakdown and directed to attend work at an all-male wrecking yard after she complained about the harassment.

Software company TechnologyOne will bring a strike-out application in a lawsuit by a former regional sales director alleging the company unfairly put him on a performance improvement plan and forced him to work excessive hours.

Builder J Hutchinson and the union for construction workers have successfully appealed a finding that they unlawfully agreed to boycott an independent subcontractor at a Brisbane building site.

The former head of brand marketing at Mecca Brand has dropped her lawsuit alleging the cosmetics retailer violated the Fair Work Act by making her position redundant after a period of maternity leave.

Victoria’s Peninsula Health has abandoned an appeal of a ruling in a class action that found it breached workplace laws by failing to pay overtime to a junior doctor, a capitulation that could be a game changer for a series of class actions against health care providers.

A Sydney law firm and its principal have been fined $14,400 for disobeying a Fair Work Ombudsman compliance notice issued for the alleged underpayment of a paralegal, with a judge saying the lawyer’s belief she did not owe any wages was “unreasoned and unreasonable”.