The High Court has refused Gough & Gilmour special leave to appeal against the NSW Court of Appeal judgment denying jurisdiction for the dealership agreements and related matters pursuant to s 106 of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW). See “Casenote: Nothing fails like success”, being an analysis of the Court of Appeal’s judgment. [...] Continue Reading…
Visscher v The Hon President Justice Giudice [2009] HCA 34 (2 September 2009).
A majority of the High Court (Heydon, Crennan, Kiefel and Bell JJ – Gummow J dissenting) has handed down an interesting employment case dealing with the often contested jurisdictional point in unfair dismissal cases as to whether the employment was terminated at the initiative of the employer or the employee. If the former, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), had jurisdiction to hear whether the dismissal was “harsh, unjust or unreasonable”; if the latter, the matter would be struck out. [...] Continue Reading…
The Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on an appeal to it, handed down its decision on 28 July 2009 in relation to the vexed question as to whether the employment was terminated at the initiative of the employer, it being one of the jurisdictional requirements under s 643 of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth). The employer, Australian Hearing, had made an application before Commissioner Thatcher, that he dismiss an application on the basis that the worker had resigned and there was no termination of the relevant kind. [...] Continue Reading…
Real Estate is a tough business. In the film version of the David Mamet play “Glengarry Glen Ross”, the head office motivator says “It takes brass balls to sell real estate”.
In a case in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, delivered on 5 June 2009, Acting Justice Debelle, in Marlov Pty Ltd v Col [2009] NSWSC 501 once again shows how tough the real estate business is. This case was one seeking an injunction to restrain a former employee from working for a competitor. The Plaintiff, a real estate agent, claimed that the Defendant, a former employee, was acting in breach of his employment agreement when he was employed by a competitor. [...] Continue Reading…
The strange and slow death of the New South Wales unfair work contracts jurisdiction found in s 106 of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) continues apace. The Court of Appeal in a judgment dated 17 April 2009 in Caterpillar of Australia Pty Ltd v Industrial Court of New South Wales [2009] NSWCA 83, has once again dealt a near mortal blow to what remains of the jurisdiction.
Some many years ago, in an unreported decision of the Industrial Relations Commission of Rolles v Donald Scott Surgical Pty Ltd (unreported, Industrial Commission (NSW), Fisher P, Cahill VP and Bauer J, 19 February 1988), the Full Bench of the Commission was somewhat tempting the arrival of Nemesis when it described the unfair contracts jurisdiction as “a major commercial jurisdiction exercised in circumstances frequently having little to do with the industrial arbitration and similar litigation normally encountered by industrial tribunals (at 20). [...] Continue Reading…
