BHP Billiton has resolved a case by an employee who claimed the company breached the Fair Work Act by sacking her for alleged social media harassment of a co-worker who failed to self isolate after an interstate trip at the start of the first COVID-19 wave.
While a first test case in NSW rejected insurers’ interpretation of infectious disease exclusions in COVID-19 business interruption policies, potentially putting the industry on the hook for billions of dollars in claims, QBE says the law is on its side in Victoria.
A judge has rejected an application by the plaintiffs in two class actions against Freedom Foods and Deloitte to run their cases side-by-side, but said she would have granted a bid to consolidate the proceedings had that been sought.
Nine subsidiary Fairfax Media has agreed to pay compensation to a Papua New Guinea politician who sued the publisher for defamation for allegedly engaging in a “smear campaign”, with a judge making an order of compensation despite a “ludicrous” objection from Fairfax.
Qantas has lost its second attempt to delay a hearing on further relief pending an appeal in its outsourcing spat with the Transport Workers Union, with a judge finding a stay would prejudice the union more than the airline.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has denied the Fair Work Ombudsman is entitled to seek compensation for its underpayment of staff, saying its $330 million remediation to affected employees fully answers the regulator’s case.
Qantas has filed a bid to delay a hearing on penalty after a judge found the airline outsourced ground operations partly to prevent employees engaging in industrial action, but the TWU has said a stay would be “unfair” to 1,600 former ground staff.
Australian tech startup Unlockd has sued Google in the United States for abusing its control over the Android smartphone ecosystem, claiming it was forced into bankruptcy because of the US tech giant’s anticompetitive acts.
Despite claims the $98 million settlement did not warrant a contradictor’s scrutiny, a judge has appointed a contradictor to represent the interests of group members in franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven as he weighs the deal.
Former Attorney-General Christian Porter has stepped down from the federal cabinet after refusing to reveal information about an anonymous donor that covered a portion of his costs in pursuing defamation proceedings against the ABC over an article airing historical rape allegations.