Major court and tribunal decisions in Australia in 2019

Abstract

This annual survey of significant court and tribunal decisions in Australia in 2019 covers employer efforts to restrain employee communication outside the workplace through codes of conduct and the use of biometric technology in the workplace. It also considers the rise of class actions in employment law and the strategic use by large employers of consumer and intellectual property laws against trade unions in the context of industrial disputes.

Major court and tribunal decisions in Australia in 2021

“…While on the topic of significant High Court decisions, it is also worth acknowledging two further matters before the High Court that were influential in 2021. The first is Ridd v James Cook University (2021) 394 ALR 12, (Ridd) , which, as discussed in the previous two annual reviews (Allen and Landau, 2020; Golding, 2021a), concerned Dr Ridd, who, during his employment with James Cook University, criticised research performed by his colleagues about damage to the Great Barrier Reef in the media, suggesting that it was misleading. He was dismissed in 2018 for a purported breach of the University's Code of Conduct but challenged that dismissal as unlawful in the then Federal Circuit Court, suggesting that he had intellectual freedom to make such comments, which was protected by the University's enterprise agreement.…”

Major court and tribunal decisions in Australia in 2020

“…As suggested, academics gathered notoriety in the context of dismissals, three instances of which are mentioned here. This focus builds on last year’s review where there was a focus on the question of academic freedom in the context of academic employment (Allen and Landau, 2020: 449–50). In the first matter, Zhao v University of Technology Sydney [2020] FWC 416, the Commission ordered the reinstatement of a University of Technology Sydney Business School lecturer who had failed to meet a requirement to have research published in a top journal but had still achieved other benchmarks.…”

“…A later Full Federal Court decision, James Cook University v Ridd [2020] FCAFC 123 ( Ridd ), concerned an academic from James Cook University who was dismissed after criticising research relating to climate change. The Full Court upheld James Cook University’s appeal against a Federal Circuit Court decision, helpfully summarised in the 2019 review (Allen and Landau, 2020: 449–50), that its code of conduct could only apply where academics’ behaviour was not covered by intellectual freedom clauses in its 2013 enterprise agreement. Judge Vasta of the Federal Circuit Court had ordered the university to pay Professor Ridd over $1.2 million, stating that it had dismissed a long-standing and productive employee for exercising a workplace right.…”