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New Fixed Fee Offer for Companies

Stevens & Associates are excited to announce the launch of our Modern Award Audit Package (“the Audit Package”) which you can check out by clicking here. The Audit Package offers a fixed fee $2000.00 review of your Company’s compliance with the relevant Modern Awards and underlying employment law legislation and regulations. We believe conducting an audit […]

History of Harassment catches up with Bunnings Workers

A recent case heard in the Fair Work Division of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (“FCFCA”) has raised some interesting questions around whether a new employer can terminate for serious misconduct that occurred during the course of work with a former employer. In this case, an accountant (“the Applicant”) is challenging his […]

Unrealistic Workload leads to Constructive Dismissal

Mr Sathananthan (“the Applicant”) claimed he was being constructively dismissed from his employer (“the Respondent”) after being expected to work excessive hours well beyond his contractual terms. As this case will demonstrates, employers ought to be aware that resignation by an employee does not necessarily prevent an employee from making a successful unfair dismissal claim. […]

Bullying Accusation Falls Short

The Fair Work Commission (“FWC”) has rejected an allegation of bullying made by an employee of a charitable organisation (“the Organisation”). Mr Garcia (“the Employee”) claimed that he had been bullied under s 759FC of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (“FWA”), accusing the organisation of giving his usual shifts to another employee because he […]

No ‘Gold Star’ for Star Casino in Wage Underpayment Scandal

The current wage underpayment compliance climate has claimed its latest culprit… the Star Entertainment Group Limited (Star Casino) who has announced it will spend approximately $13 million (plus interest) to repay around 2200 workers it found were underpaid over a six-year period. This underpayment case reiterates the importance of conducting regular audits of company payments […]

Worker Sacked for Offensive Facebook Posts

Background The employee (“the Employee”) worked as a call centre employee for the Australian Council of Trade Unions (“the ACTU”) in Victoria. On 21 September 2021, an ACTU Director (“the Director”) discovered posts by the Employee on its Slack platform and his personal Facebook account that it considered offensive, homophobic, antisemitic, mocked domestic violence and […]

Employee working from home fails to comply with a workplace direction to return to work

Will an employer have a ‘valid reason’ for dismissing an employee if they refuse to return to work after being issued a workplace direction to do so? In a recent decision, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has decided that employers will have valid reason in such circumstances, provided that the direction to return to work […]

Workplaces hit hard by Omicron Wave: Impact of the latest public health orders

In only the last few weeks, workplaces have taken a major hit due to the surge of Omicron. With case numbers now in the tens of thousands, Omicron poses enormous challenges for the community, supply chains, and the workforce across New South Wales. To ensure that essential services such as supermarket chains and healthcare remain […]

Fair Work Commission Shuts Down Employer’s Plan to Cut Redundancy Payout

Savco Vegetation Services Pty Ltd (“the Company”) has failed to persuade the Fair Work Commission (“FWC”) that helping a worker secure a job warranted not paying a worker their redundancy entitlement. The Company applied to the FWC to reduce the worker’s redundancy pay from eight weeks to nil on the basis it was a “strong […]