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Guardian Australia understands that Opera Australia settled with all but one of the musicians, agreeing to additional payouts worth thousands of dollars on top of their redundancy entitlements, on the condition they signed confidentiality clauses.
None of the sacked employees was given the option of remaining on jobkeeper when the sackings took place last September.
The musicians allege Opera Australia management told them the company was not prepared to continue to shoulder the administrative costs of the government-funded job-saving scheme. The company, which receives about $26m in federal government funding each year, now faces a legal battle, with the orchestra’s former oboist of more than 30 years’ standing, Mark Bruwel, refusing to accept the confidential settlement and taking his case to the federal court. Bruwel was the union delegate of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) in the orchestra for 15 years.