Cosco Holdings Pty Ltd v Thu Thi Van Do

The applicant, Cosco Holdings Pty Ltd, sought a judicial review of decisions by a judicial registrar which had upheld claims by six former employees that their employment was unlawfully terminated. The judicial registrar had ordered that two of the employees be paid compensation and that the other four be reinstated. Cosco argued that the review should be conducted "on the papers" and that the reviewing judge should not read the reasons for decision of the judicial registrar. The court examined the nature of a review of a judicial registrar’s decision and found that the reviewing judge should deal with the matter afresh and not simply adopt the findings of the judicial registrar. The court also found that Cosco had not shown that there was any actual reason based on the operational requirements of the undertaking for the termination of services of the number of employees who were terminated. The court further found that the terminations were not motivated by any reason which would contravene s 170DF(1)(b) of the Workplace Relations Act 1995. The court ordered that the two employees who were ordered to be paid compensation by the judicial registrar should be paid compensation and that the other four employees should be reinstated. The parties were to submit on the quantum of compensation.