Brace yourself, there’s no doubt we are navigating uncharted waters and unique challenges. As your employment lawyers, it’s our job to take the stress out of it for you! If Covid is affecting your business and workforce, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss whether there’s a solution or workaround – temporary or […]
A scathing report on the inquest into the tragic deaths of four people on Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids ride in 2016 was handed down by Coroner James McDougall on 24 February 2020. The 300-page report condemned Dreamworld for their “shoddy” record keeping and safety systems that were “rudimentary at best”. The Coroner indicated that Dreamworld […]
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 […]
As part of the four yearly review of modern awards which we briefly summarised In our November edition of Vision in the Workplace, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has handed down a decision which affects employers paying annualised salaries to employees covered by modern awards. Employers who currently pay annualised salaries to certain award-covered employees […]
A talented young football player, Mark Moric, is taking legal action in the Federal Circuit Court against the Mariners Football Club (the Club) for more than $60,000 in unpaid wages and damages. Mr Moric alleges that he worked for free for almost four months under what the Club labelled as a ‘trial period’. He also […]
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 […]