Victoria has doubled funding for security in public hospitals after a surgeon was left fighting for his life when he was attacked in the foyer of a hospital in Melbourne’s east. Dr Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann was punched in the head and knocked unconscious at Box Hill Hospital last month. He remains in a critical condition. His alleged attacker, Joseph Esmaili, has been charged with recklessly causing serious injury. The Victorian Government said it would provide an extra $20 million for improved security, on top of $20 million invested last year.
June 16, 2017
BK Chemists is defending a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) lodged by Trevisan.
June 16, 2017
Disgraced ex-Labor MP Craig Thomson will lose more than $100 a week from his modest income as a consultant after the Federal Court quarantined the money to pay his outstanding fine for misusing union funds. Thomson has refused to pay the Fair Work Commission any of the $175,550 as ordered in 2015 by judge Christopher Jessup, who found the former Health Services Union national secretary had used more than $300,000 of HSU funds to pay for prostitutes and his election campaign for the seat of Dobell. The industrial watchdog took Thomson back to court this month to seek a formal earnings order withholding a proportion of his wages for the outstanding fine. Though Thomson did not appear, Federal Court registrar David Ryan ordered his wife’s company — the Wickerman Group, which employs the former MP as a consultant — to pay the FWC $208.88 a fortnight from his wages, or $5408 a year, as long as Thomson continued to earn more than $839.12 per fortnight. Under this arrangement, it will take more than 32 years for the penalty to be repaid. The former union boss has also flouted orders to pay the HSU $231,243.42 in compensation and $146,937 interest, raising the prospect that the union may take similar action to ensure payment as it has previously flagged.
June 16, 2017
A s.185 (Enterprise agreement) application by Churches of Christ in Queensland (Churches of Christ Care) for its Churches of Christ Care Community and Residential Services Enterprise Agreement 2017 has been approved by Commissioner Saunders in Newcastle on 13 June 2017.
June 16, 2017
Healthcare Australia Pty Ltd is defending a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) lodged by an ex-staff member (Sommer).
June 16, 2017
Winton-born chartered accountant Denis Woods says he was looking forward to conducting “business as usual” for the Community Trust of Southland. Woods has been appointed as an interim manager while the trust seeks to replace its long-standing chief executive John Prendergast. Prendergast, this week said, he resigned from his open-ended contract last month.
June 15, 2017
A s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) by the Health Services Union against St John of God Health Care involved in an alleged dispute arising under an enterprise agreement. The case turned on whether consultation was required and has taken place; whether comparable alternative employment was found and whether redundancy payments were required. The decision was split. St John of God health care was held to have failed to consult in the manner required by the agreement and had ignored the requisite consultative time frame. But it won the key point and is not obliged to pay severance pay.
June 15, 2017
A s.437 (Protected action) application by the Health Services Union against G4S Australia T/A G4S Australia has been granted by Commissioner Gregory in Melbourne on 9 June 2017.
