A landmark ruling has found judges have the power to order security against litigation funders backing Fair Work class actions, in a decision that could change the landscape of representative proceedings.
The judge overseeing competing employment class actions on behalf of casual coal miners against WorkPac has ordered the law firms running the cases to consider a proposal to jointly run the proceedings.
Labour hire company Workpac is seeking to stay two class actions over leave entitlements allegedly owed coal miners, amid a looming judgment from the Full Federal Court that will clarify the definition of casual employees.
The CFMEU will fund a landmark multi-million dollar class action against labour hire company Workpac seeking repayment of leave entitlements it claims are owed to more than 600 coalminers, in the latest casual employee challenge to hit the courts.
A class action against the Federal Government’s Airservices has been dismissed after a “fatal” ruling that group members were not covered by enterprise agreements they argued had better terms than their own individually negotiated contracts.
NSW Health is facing a potential class action alleging it underpaid junior medical officers who were denied wages for unscheduled or non-rostered hours worked.
A judge has baulked at an application by labour hire company Chandler Macleod and BHP unit Mt Arthur Coal seeking security for their legal costs in two casual worker class actions, saying Fair Work cases were not the same as shareholder class actions.
A judge has hit the applicant in a sham contraction class action against Appco with costs for forcing the company to file a defence to a superseded pleading, saying the usual “no costs” rule in Fair Work cases had less force in actions backed by third party litigation funders.
A judge has raised serious concerns about the proposed commission by the funder behind a $90 million sham contracting class action against fundraiser Appco, slamming as “intuitively wrong” an arrangment that could leave group members pocketing less than half of any recovery.
Lawyers for a class action against the Federal Government-owned Airservices told a court Tuesday that higher salaries on individually negotiated management contracts did not leave managers better off than they would have been under relevant collective enterprise agreements.