Recent cases in labour law — January 2024

Welcome to recent cases in labour law — January 2024:

• The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (Judge Cameron) has held that an employee, who held roles as a “junior sous chef” and “sous chef”, was a “hotel manager” for the purposes of the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010, on the basis that those roles “satisfied the managerial element” of the classification pursuant to the Award (at [126]). (Jones v Hamilton Island Enterprises Limited [2024] FedCFamC2G 6)
• The Fair Work Commission (Commissioner Matheson) has usefully summarised the legal principles relevant to the granting of an order to produce documents pursuant to section 590(2)(c) of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (at [22]-[25]). (Pece Calovski v Opal Packaging Australia Pty Ltd [2024] FWC 68)
• The New South Wales Court of Appeal (Payne JA; Kirk JA; Griffiths AJA) has helpfully summarised the legal principles relevant to the proper construction of a poorly drafted contract, observing that “where errors are numerous or the drafter’s approach to grammar and syntax is “casual”, it is wrong to place great weight on considerations turning on the precise form of the clauses” and “…sometimes the imprecision and indeed ignorance of a drafter may lead to a threshold question about what the literal or grammatical meaning of the words used actually is” (at [46]). (J&Z Holding (Aust) Pty Ltd v Vitti Pty Ltd [2024] NSWCA 2)
• The New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission (Commissioner McDonald) has helpfully summarised the legal principles that govern a claim based on freedom from victimisation pursuant to section 210 of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) at [28]-[51]. Further, the Commission also helpfully summarised the legal principles regarding the extent to which legal professional privilege applied to communications sent by a union delegate to a union lawyer and to other union employees (at [129]-[141). (Public Service Association and Professional Officers’ Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales (obo Saraceno) v Commissioner of Police [2024] NSWIRComm 1001)