Nine to pay own costs in Tredrea legal case

Former Nine News Adelaide sport presenter will not have to play Nine’s legal fees, despite losing an unfair dismissal complaint in March.

Tredrea took leave from the Adelaide station in December 2021 after Nine introduced a double-vaccination mandate for all employees.

He claimed he was subsequently unlawfully dismissed from his position and should be paid out the remaining $176,458 of his contract and up to 30 years of pay for the missed opportunity of employment.

But in March the Federal Court accepted Nine’s counter-assertions that Tredrea was dismissed because of performance in the job, not because of its covid vaccination policy.

Justice Kennett found that while there may have been a case had Mr Tredrea been terminated solely on the grounds of a breach of COVID policy, the dismissal was supported on the other grounds.

ABC reports the judgement shows that after initially demanding $3.8 million in March 2022, Mr Tredrea later offered to settle the proceeding for $176,458 in July 2023, “representing the payments due for the remainder of the term of the Services Agreement, plus interest and costs”.

“Channel 9’s solicitors responded … [and] they rejected the applicants’ offer,” the judgement read.

Court documents revealed Channel Nine offered to settle the proceeding with an offer of $50,000, and again with a larger “contribution” of $120,000 “towards the applicants’ costs”.

The judge found Mr Tredrea’s rejection of Nine’s offers to settle his case was not vexatious.

Mr Tredrea will pay for his own legal costs, while Nine will cover their successful defence of the claim.

In April, Mr Tredrea formally lodged appeal documents with the Federal Court, seeking to challenge Justice Kennett’s dismissal of his claim.