Sacked SBS journo sues for discrimination; iiNet offers free legal representation to customers who downloaded Dallas Buyers Club: Midday Roundup

Scott McIntyre, the SBS journalist who was sacked for tweeting “highly inappropriate and disrespectful” comments about Anzac Day, has lodged a discrimination claim before the Fair Work Commission, according to News.com.au.

The claim alleges SBS breached its policies, including its code of conduct, and did not follow due process when it sacked McIntyre last month.

Law firm Maurice Blackburn, which is representing McIntyre, said in a statement the Fair Work Act protects employees from adverse actions by their employer, including sacking, if they express a political opinion.

“It is alleged SBS took action without a proper investigation and consideration of all relevant issues. It will be contended that Mr McIntyre had an unblemished work record and if a proper process had been followed, he would still be employed in his chosen career,” said Maurice Blackburn.

iiNet offers free legal representation to customers who downloaded Dallas Buyers Club

iiNet will provide pro-bono services for any of its customers who receive an infringement letter for illegally downloading the movie Dallas Buyers Club.

In April, iiNet and number of other ISPs such as Dodo, were ordered by the Federal Court to hand over the details of thousands of customers accused of pirating the movie.

The internet provider announced via a blog post it will be forced after May 21 to hand over the name and physical addresses of the customers.

But iiNet said it is now working with a law firm that has offered to provide free legal advice to affected customers, although it says more details of the offer will be provided when a full agreement is reached with the firm.

“We don’t support or condone copyright infringement but we couldn’t sit by and have our customers potentially bullied by the process of speculative invoicing,” said iiNet.

“We’re proud of the fact we took these guys on and while rights holders may claim a win on paper, we certainly achieved a result that will dent, if not break, the ‘business model’ of aggressive rights holders trying to bully the average consumer based on limited evidence of infringement.”

Shares down on open

Aussie shares are trading slightly lower heading into lunchtime, although the market has recovered from some losses earlier in the morning’s trading session.

Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, said in a statement weakness in the commodity market is continuing to weigh on local investors.

“With iron ore, oil and copper off overnight, we saw a direct effect on local companies today,” K’Nell said.

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was down 3.3 points to 5655.9 points at 12.13pm AEST. On Monday, the Dow Jones closed 26.32 points, up 0.14% to 18298.9 points.