Employment

A judge hearing a lawsuit by an ex-Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner seeking $13 million in compensation from his former firm and Lendlease has ordered that the court first decide whether new whistleblower protections apply retrospectively.

A wife employed by her barrister husband can seek compensation for unpaid wages because the claim is based on their employment relationship not their marital relationship, a court has held.

Hospitality giant Merivale is contesting a bid by the applicant in a $129 million underpayments class action to issue a second opt out notice to employees, which it said was an attempt to ensure group members “take an interest” in the proceedings.

The Greens are pushing for reforms that would give employees the ‘right to disconnect’ by prohibiting employers from contacting them outside of work hours.

A director at office leasing company Cushman & Wakefield who accepted a job with a competitor has lost a bid to lift an injunction keeping her on garden leave for three months, with a judge finding she was the “author of her own misfortune” for failing to read her employment contract.

Ashurst has lured the founding partner of McCullough Robertson’s employment and safety practice to expand its risk advisory offering amid increased regulation in the space.

MACH Energy has hit back at a lawsuit by mining executive Nathan Tinkler’s companies that alleges a former general manager misused confidential information to help MACH buy the lucrative Mount Pleasant coal mine.

The question of whether judges have the power to hear employment cases as representative proceedings is headed to the Full Court after a union raised the issue as it battles to have its underpayments case against McDonald’s run instead of a Shine Lawyers class action.

A judge is weighing up a law firm’s high legal costs against a union’s “bizarre” delay in a stoush over who should run a case against McDonald’s alleging 100,000 workers were denied rest breaks. 

The fees of a class action firm found to have breached cost disclosure rules in running two underpayments class actions against supermarket chain Romeo’s have been adjusted up, after $260,000 was initially cut from the bill by the Federal Court.