King v Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club Inc

In the matter of King v Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club Inc, the applicant has brought an application for leave to appeal from a judgment given in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. The primary proceeding involves a dispute concerning remuneration and alleged contraventions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) by the first respondent. The applicant claims that his employment was not remunerated in accordance with relevant awards by the Fair Work Commission and seeks relief against the respondents, including the first respondent who is alleged to have directly contravened the Act. The respondents dispute the applicant's claims and have denied that the relevant awards applied to the applicant's employment. In the primary proceeding, the court was asked to determine whether the Fitness Industry Award 2010 applied to the applicant's employment with the first respondent, and it was concluded that it did not. The applicant seeks to appeal from the declaratory relief granted in respect of this determination.

The legal issues that the Court was required to address were whether the declaratory relief granted in the Primary Judgment was interlocutory in nature, thus requiring leave to appeal, and if so, whether the proposed appeal had sufficient merit to warrant the grant of leave. The Court considered whether the declaratory relief was interlocutory and found that it was not, as declaratory relief is not typically interlocutory. The Court also considered the merits of the appeal and whether leave should be restricted to identified grounds, or whether other grounds also had merit or utility. The Court determined that leave should be granted to appeal from the Primary Judgment.

The Court granted leave to appeal from the judgment of the Court in King v Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club Inc [2020] FCA 1173. Any notice of appeal filed pursuant to the leave granted must be filed on or before 18 November 2020. There was no order as to costs in respect of the applicant’s application for leave to appeal.