Qantas filed a lawsuit in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday against former executive Nick Rohrlach, the incoming CEO for Virgin loyalty program Velocity, accusing him of breaching a non-compete clause in his employment contract.

The Australian airline is seeking to delay Rohrlach’s May start date by forcing him to comply with the restraint clause, which Qantas says prevents him from working with a competitor for six months and requires him to provide three months’ notice of his resignation.

Rohrlach filed separate proceedings against Qantas on March 1 in Singapore, the jurisdiction where his employment contract was signed, seeking a declaration that any attempted restraint by the Australian airline is unenforceable. Virgin Australia is also party to the claim in Singapore.

In a directions hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice James Stevenson heard Rohrlach is seeking to stay the proceedings and prevent Qantas’ claim from being heard, filing an anti-suit application with the court on Monday night.

Qantas filed for an order on Friday against Rohrlach and Virgin to prevent them from continuing with proceedings in Singapore and seeking a declaration that the disputed non-compete clause is unenforceable. The national airline was granted an interim anti-suit injunction on Friday against the Singapore proceedings and is seeking a permanent injunction. 

Justice Stevenson said in Tuesday’s hearing that it was important that Qantas’ anti-suit application in Singapore be resolved because it “will determine where the suit is to be heard.”

The lawsuit comes after Rohrlach took a senior position in Qantas’ loyalty program business in October. The airline is concerned that Rohrlach could use confidential information he received in the course of onboarding to give Virgin an undue advantage.

Virgin is not a party to proceedings in Australia but is supporting Rohrlach’s application.

“(We) categorically deny that we have been anything but proper and appropriate in Mr Rohrlach’s recruitment. We are confident our position will be vindicated in court,” a spokesperson for Virgin said in a statement to Lawyerly.

“It’s nice the dominant market player is finally recognising it has competition, but it’s disappointing that they have chosen to attack us rather than get on with the job at hand.”

The spokesperson for Virgin said the airline was “disappointed” that Qantas had chosen to speak to the media while court proceedings were underway.

Qantas has been involved in a number of employment disputes in the past year. A 64-year-old Qantas pilot who was stood down as part of the airline’s response to the COIVD-19 pandemic launched a lawsuit in February accusing the airline of unlawful discrimination for only providing redundancy packages to employees younger than 63 years old.

Three unions representing Qantas workers asked the high Court in January for special leave to appeal a ruling from the Full Federal Court which sided with the airline in a dispute over the operation of the JobKeeper wage subsidy.

The Transportation Workers’ Union, the Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Union are seeking special leave to appeal the Full Court’s December ruling overturning a finding from Justice Geoffrey Flick that Qantas had incorrectly applied the scheme and underpaid its staff.

Counsel for Qantas, Yaseen Shariff SC, and barrister for Rohrlach, Michael Izzo SC, said they expected the anti-suit injunctions to be resolved by the next hearing. A date for the hearing has not been set.

Qantas is represented by Michael Izzo SC, instructed by Minter Ellison. Nick Rohrlach is represented by Yaseen Shariff SC, instructed by Seyfarth Shaw. Jamie Darams is representing Virgin.

The case is Qantas Airways Limited v Nick Rohrlach.

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