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‘No clear lessons’ for corporate employers from Folau settlement
Wednesday’s settlement between Rugby Australia and former star player Israel Folau – the details for which remain undisclosed – leaves a lot of unanswered questions from an employment law perspective, argues one professional.
Jerome Doraisamy
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Rugby Australia and Mr Folau said they had settled their legal dispute pertaining to the posting of a religious message on the latter’s Instagram account which discriminated against LGBTQI persons.
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, McDonald Murholme principal Andrew Jewell said there are “no clear lessons” from the settlement, save for the fact that “there is still a lot of uncertainty”.
“For example, it remains uncertain as to whether a corporate lawyer can terminate an employee for public comments which express a religious or political view that is seen as damaging to the employer,” he said.
“The trial was an extremely interesting employment law case because it would have examined the breadth of the freedom from religious discrimination, how freedom of speech interacts with discrimination law, and to what extent employers can curtail public comments made by employees.
“As the matter resolved without a trial, these questions remain unanswered.”
There is at least one takeaway, however, for employees who might feel aggrieved in particular circumstances, Mr Jewell added.
“The main takeaway for lawyers in firms who may feel discriminated against is that there are protections against discrimination, however it is unclear as to whether that protection extends to public comments which could be seen as damaging to the firm,” he said.
With that said, it will not be easy for the legal profession to clearly respond to the settlement in determining, as corporate entities, how best to strike a balance with employment rights.
“This is difficult, because employers are always balancing the rights of individuals with the interests of the firm or organisation who employs the individual. As a profession we should be ensuring the commercial interests of employers do not dominate over the rights of individual lawyers,” Mr Jewell noted.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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