Sudhir Sivarajah

Comfortable in advisory and litigious contexts, I have a clear client focus with an analytical bent. My practice covers the full spectrum of employment and industrial legal matters with a specialty in work, health and safety law.

I am an Of Counsel in the Sydney Office practicing across all aspects of employment, industrial and work safety law. My experience has ranged from human resource management, restructuring and redundancy, managing injured workers, workplace investigations and bargaining to termination of employment, post-employment restraints and employment related litigation. In respect of work safety, I regularly assist businesses with proactive safety compliance as well as assisting with major safety incidents, which typically involves managing the business response to regulatory investigations and defending safety prosecutions. Over the years, I have assisted businesses and organisations in relation to numerous significant incidents including a race crash at a major Australian car racing event, safety incidents during the Barangaroo constructions, successfully defending a NRL Club following a second phase regulatory investigation, and the Governor Macquarie electrical fire fatality.

I quite enjoy dealing with technical matters and I like to keep abreast of relevant emerging legal and industry issues. What drives me though is securing great client outcomes especially in complex environments. With the benefit of many years of experience in safety, I inevitably take a risk based and strategic approach to matters.

• Advised a major financial institution in respect of employee entitlement underpayment risks including working with a Big 4 accounting practice in undertaking a comprehensive review of the institution's operations and risks.
• Advised an international entertainment company in respect of its enterprise bargaining strategy relating to Australian business and numerous enterprise agreements, following significant statutory changes to multi-party bargaining, as well as advising and representing the company in respect of numerous contentious union right of entry matters.
• Advised on employment issues relating to a global technology corporation's acquisition of another global technology corporation's Australian business segment.
• Advised and represented an international manufacturer in relation to a workplace fatality concerning its product. Assistance included representing the business in dealings with the safety regulator and prosecutor, devising risk management strategies including protecting the business' highly confidential commercial information and IP from interrogation and disclosure.
• Lead investigator in respect of an investigation into the (primary and secondary) causes of a serious workplace safety incident.

• Represented a dental practice in respect of Federal Court proceedings concerning an equitable breach of confidence, as well as Fair Work and employment claims. Obtained an indemnity costs order for preliminary discovery for the equitable claim, despite the proximity to the Fair Work claims (Beaumont Hills Dental Surgery Pty Ltd v Goodarzi [2022] FCA 625).
• Represented a technology business in successfully defending contested unfair dismissal proceedings (Hoosen v ISI Managed Services Pty Ltd [2021] FWC 3032).
• Successfully defended protracted and contested work health and safety prosecution proceedings arising from a workplace fatality. This led to a record cost order for my client (Fletcher v Demag Cranes and Components Pty Ltd [2020] QMC 9).
• Defended an international technology company in common law breach of contract proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court relating to executive fraud and misconduct.
• Successfully negotiated one of the first work safety regulatory enforceable undertakings in NSW and also under the national harmonised laws.