Israel Folau to officially fight Rugby Australia over contract termination

Israel Folau has hired Jarryd Hayne, Dylan Walker and Salim Mehajer’s lawyer for the most intriguing workplace termination battle in Australian sports history.

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Update: Israel Folau has hired Jarryd Hayne, Dylan Walker and Salim Mehajer’s lawyer for the most intriguing workplace termination battle in Australian sports history.

Ramy Qutami, who is representing former Eels NRL star Hayne in his fight against a sexual assault allegation, stood-down Manly NRL player Walker for alleged domestic violence and acted for former Auburn deputy mayor Mehajer over driving convictions, will now take up the fight against Rugby Australia on Folau’s behalf.

The unprecedented case will pit an argument of the freedom for religious expression, against an employer’s right to sack an employee for vilifying people based on their sexuality after a formal warning.

The Wallabies star told RA on Wednesday he will fight the termination of his $4 million contract, so the matter will head to a code of conduct hearing within a fortnight.

A date has yet to be set because three independent panel members must be agreed upon by RA, the Rugby Union Players’ Association and Folau’s team, and then a date found when all three are available.

Israel Folau won’t go down without a fight. Picture: Getty

With the Easter and Anzac Day public holidays approaching, it is not expected that a hearing will take place before April29, although officials are hoping to at least have the three panellists confirmed by Thursday evening.

Qutami did not want to comment when contacted by The Daily Telegraph, however those close to the director of law firm MadisonMarcus say he is “extremely confident” in Folau’s case against his bosses.

Regardless of the outcome of the hearing, this case is monumentally damaging rugby and the consequence will be the likely loss of millions of dollars in sponsorship as brands seek to distance themselves from the drama beyond this year.

Folau has hired lawyer Ramy Qutami for the code of conduct hearing.

And there’s no guarantee the code of conduct hearing will end the saga. Both parties will have avenues to appeal the final decision.

Those who know Qutami say he would be willing to take the case to the courts if Folau’s termination is enforced by the panel.

A defence of religious expression has never been tried in the NSW courts as a defence to vilification — those claims are settled internally within a company’s human resources department — making this uncharted territory for workplace law.

Folau’s defence will rely on two key elements; that his social media posts were not his own words but that he was quoting scripture, and that there is no specific social media clause in his contract stopping him from doing so.

Israel Folau runs onto nib Stadium under a rainbow. Picture: Getty

As revealed by the Telegraph, RA made a blunder by failing to insert the clause when they re-signed Folau for four years in February. They attempted to have the clause put into his contract at the last minute but as he’d already signed, Folau refused.

RA will argue Folau breached the standard code of conduct in his contract by saying homosexuals are destined for hell unless they repent of their sins.

He was also given a formal warning letter last year for making similar comments on social media, and this will be a major weapon for the governing body.

On April 10, Folau posted on Instagram: “Warning: Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists,Idolators, Hell Awaits You, Repent!”

When he made a similar comment last year, Folau was hauled before RA boss Raelene Castle and warned of the damage it had on the gay community.

He then wrote a column saying: “After we’d all talked, I told Ralene if she felt the situation had become untenable — that I was hurting Rugby Australia, its sponsors and the Australian rugby community to such a degree that things couldn’t be worked through — I would walk away from my contract immediately.”

But now that Folau is fighting against termination, former NSW and Wallabies teammate Drew Mitchell took aim at the perceived hypocrisy.

“The fact [RA] intend to terminate [Folau’s] contract would suggest it’s become untenable. I would hate to think Izzy is a liar because we know what happens to them …” Mitchell wrote on Twitter.