As world’s best battle on court, Tennis Australia takes on officials

1 month ago 3

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Tennis Australia has rejected comparisons to journalist Antoinette Lattouf’s unlawful sacking by the ABC as it pushes to have a bitter feud with match officials thrown out of the workplace tribunal.

Match officials Karen Mak, Simon Cannavan, Catherine Caswell and Jim Goode launched legal action against the Australian Open organiser after having their officiating memberships terminated last October, barring them from working at the grand slam event at Melbourne Park or at any other Tennis Australia-sanctioned tournament.

The dispute between Tennis Australia and match officials has resumed during the Australian Open.

They alleged they had been targeted in retaliation for criticising the sport’s governing body about selection transparency and raising bullying allegations, accusing Tennis Australia of silencing them for speaking up.

Tennis Australia has denied wrongdoing, stating that it stripped their accreditation because they breached standards of professional conduct and affected the wellbeing of several employees and officials with a series of newsletters sent to the Australian tennis officiating community.

While the world’s best players battled it out at this year’s Australian Open, Tennis Australia resumed its own fight, seeking to have the general protections claims of Mak, a Melbourne barrister, and Cannavan, an umpire on the professional circuit who lives in New York, turned away by the Fair Work Commission.

Appearing before Commissioner Leyla Yilmaz, Tennis Australia’s barrister Andrew Denton said the two officials had not had employment contracts with the organisation since the last Australian summer of tennis, ending in January 2025, and “in order for them to be dismissed, they needed to be employed”.

Karen Mak was chair of officiating representative body Tennis Officials Australia.

“Officials are casually engaged for a fixed, specified engagement,” he said at the hearing. “As the contract ends, the employment relationship ends.”

Lawyers for Mak and Cannavan have cited Lattouf’s high-profile Federal Court victory over the national broadcaster in returning serve against Tennis Australia.

The ABC was ordered to pay the journalist a total of $220,000 for unfair dismissal after a judge ruled it had caved in to pro-Israel lobbyists and ended her casual employment in 2023 because of her views about Israel’s war in Gaza.

Lattouf was taken off air three days into a five-day contract to fill in as a presenter on the ABC’s Mornings program in Sydney.

Denton told the hearing the circumstances of her treatment by the ABC were different and did not occur in sport, saying “Lattouf is of no assistance to the applicants”.

Antoinette Lattouf took on the ABC over her sacking and won.

He instead pointed to the case of former rugby league referee Tim Alouani-Roby, who failed in multiple attempts to sue the NRL after his 12-month contract was not renewed following the 2020 season.

Tennis Australia pays umpires, line judges, court supervisors and tournament referees to work on a casual basis at events year-round, from junior to professional level, including the Australian Open.

Mak and Cannavan, who is one of Australia’s highest-ranking chair umpires, are long-serving officials and had expected to be hired for the first tennis major of the year, before their memberships were removed.

Barrister Ben Holding, representing the pair, said that effectively discharged them from service, ceasing their casual employment with Tennis Australia.

He told the hearing that match officials were obliged to attend membership forums, keep abreast of rules, comply with policy and complete training between events, and their arrangement with Tennis Australia represented an “umbrella contract”.

Cannavan, who umpired an Australian Open women’s singles semi-final in 2022, the year Ash Barty was champion, had even been sent a new uniform by Tennis Australia around the same time as his membership was torn up, Holding said.

“This was not a relationship that ended at the expiration of each shift. It was ongoing,” he said.

“They submit that their employment was ongoing and it was cancelled.”

While US-based Cannavan had not umpired at an Australian tournament since last January, Mak officiated at several other local events last year.

Simon Cannavan in the umpire’s chair at the US Clay Court Championships in Houston last year.

Tennis Australia claims they were voluntary shifts, for which she was paid honorariums, rather than casual work, but Mak said she did not consider herself a “hobbyist”.

“In the day-to-day practice of being an official, applying for tournaments and so forth, there is no difference between any of the events,” Mak said. “We’re not volunteers, we do it to be paid, and anything else is mere semantics.”

She said Tennis Australia had gone to the Australian Tax Office to have some officiating work characterised as a hobby in order for officials not to pay income tax.

Tennis Australia officiating manager Asitha Attygalla gave evidence that officials were paid under two separate categories – as casual employees or as volunteers, for which they received honorariums.

Match officials can apply to work at particular tournaments or over a season like the Australian summer, and are required to complete four full days’ work per year, or two days for regional officials, as a condition of their officiating memberships, according to Tennis Australia.

Mak, Cannavan, Caswell and Goode were directors of officiating representative body Tennis Officials Australia, but have resigned their posts since instigating proceedings against Tennis Australia.

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