Labor’s pre-election commitments to amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (VIC) (the Act) announced in May last year, are set to be implemented after a landslide win in Victoria in November 2018. If implemented, the changes will increase the maximum fine for death caused by an employer’s negligence to nearly $16 million, making it […]
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has recently held that a labour hire employee transferring ‘in house’ was protected from unfair dismissal after finding that the transfer constituted a “transfer of business” for the purposes of meeting the minimum employment period required to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, being 6 months, on the basis of […]
Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas Breakfast Seminar on Thursday, 29 November 2018. We trust everyone enjoyed the breakfast and opportunity to mingle and network with other clients. Jane Murray’s presentation ‘Is UR Workplace OK?’ considered the impacts of mental health in the workplace in light of the recently announced Productivity Commission Inquiry […]
In a recent landmark decision of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) which will no doubt have widespread implications for the Australian ‘gig-economy’, the FWC has held that a former Foodora Australia Pty Ltd (Foodora) delivery driver (the Worker) was an employee and not an independent contractor, “despite the attempt to create the existence of an […]
Case #1 In a recent decision, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) held that the demotion of a service supervisor (the Employee) to that of a mechanical service technician constituted dismissal within the meaning of s 386 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act). This decision was made despite a clause in the relevant […]
The Fair Work Commission has released its annual report for 2017-2018. We set out some of the key aspects of the report as follows: General Protections 4,117 general protection applications involving dismissal were lodged (up from 3,729 last year and steadily increasing from 3,270 in 2015-2016). Of the finalised applications, 27% were finalised with a […]
With the festive season and Christmas rush approaching, the workplace can become stressful and prone to Work Health and Safety (WHS) risks. Christmas Parties going awry are not the only workplace legal risks employers need to be aware of during the festive period. SafeWork Australia statistics reported that the months of January, November and December […]
The New South Wales District Court (NSWDC) have imposed heavy penalties on both H & F Mechanical Pty Ltd (the Company) and business partners Max Hoffman and Laurence Hoffman (the Partnership) for modifying a timber cutting machine and knowingly allowing an employee to use the modified machine. The Partnership was found to have a Primary […]
A recent decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court (Federal Court) has highlighted the cost associated with misclassifying employees as casual. On 16 August 2018, the Federal Court found that a labour hire employee was entitled to annual leave benefits despite being ostensibly engaged as a casual by WorkPac Pty Ltd (WorkPac). The […]
As part of the Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) 4-yearly review of Modern Awards it issued a decision to insert a casual conversion clause (Casual Conversion Clause) into over 80 Modern Awards. The Casual Conversion Clause will be operative from 1 October 2018 and it will allow eligible casuals to request conversion to permanent employment. In […]