In the wake of New South Wales’ “worst bushfire season on record” and months of raging fires and smoke haze across Australia, multiple inquiries into the bushfire crisis have been announced. These include a formal NSW Government Inquiry, NSW Upper House Inquiry, Commonwealth House of Representatives Inquiry and a Commonwealth Royal Commission. The 3rd of March […]
The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has overturned a tribunal ruling made by Deputy President Mansini which prevented a casual employee from pursuing an unfair dismissal claim against her previous employer Bed Bath N’ Table. Casual employees are not entitled to make an unfair dismissal claim unless they have worked on a regular […]
The Federal Court of Australia has ruled that BHP breached a ‘reasonable overtime’ clause within its enterprise agreement by requiring workers to work in excess of 8 additional overtime hours per week. The agreement provided for a 35-hour working week but included a provision allowing the Company to “require employees to work reasonable overtime”, noting […]
Starting in 2020, the Fair Work Commission will extensively vary existing awards as a result of the 4 yearly review of modern awards. The review of the first group of 31 awards has been completed. The varied awards have been issued and will commence operation on 4 February 2020. To find out which awards have […]
The Senate has approved an inquiry into the causes, extent and effects of unlawful non-payment or underpayment of employees’ remuneration by employers and measures to address this issue. The successful Senate vote on 13 November 2019, referred the inquiry to the Economics References Committee. This came as a result of successful push by Labor Senators […]
In a warning for employers to ensure sexual harassment complaints are taken seriously and investigated appropriately, the South Australian Employment Tribunal has awarded $30,000 in general damages against Adelaide supermarket, Pasadena Foodland for failing to properly and externally investigate a sexual harassment complaint against its head chef. The Facts – Allegations thought to be “nothing […]
Welcome to our new “How To” series of ‘Safety in the Workplace – WHS Quarterly’. This 4 part series will offer employers a practical and easy to follow guide on how to ensure best practice and protect your business from a Work Health and Safety perspective. In recent years, there has been a slow but […]
The NSW Liberal Government has recently rejected the introduction of new industrial manslaughter laws, with the NSW Minister for Better Regulation, Kevin Anderson claiming the new laws “sound tough but are little more than a catchy title”. The rejection came as somewhat of a surprise given Queensland and the ACT have already adopted industrial manslaughter […]
A former Rotary International (Rotary) employee has been awarded $205,000 by the Federal Circuit Court for his premature dismissal. This decision provides an expensive reminder that employers must be cautious not to “manufacture” or speed up a dismissal, especially when there is a complaint involved or if the employee is close to retirement age. The […]
Welcome to our new Checklist Series segment of Vision in the Workplace. This 4 part series will offer employers an insight into various risks encountered in the modern workplace and provide tips on how best to mitigate these risks. In this first checklist, we examine why the following are important areas to consider to ensure […]