Pub­li­ca­tions

Feb 12, 2018

Long ser­vice leave and res­ig­na­tion because of ​“domes­tic or oth­er press­ing necessity”

Intro­duc­tionAn issue which aris­es from time to time is, whether long ser­vice leave is payable where an employ­ee leaves their employ­ment due to some press­ing per­son­al domes­tic cir­cum­stance. Can an employ­er decline to pay long ser­vice leave in this sit­u­a­tion?An employ­ee’s enti­tle­ment to long ser­vice leave is reg­u­lat­ed by State…

Feb 8, 2018

Lack of pro­ce­dur­al fair­ness does­n’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean unfair dismissal

In arti­cles and pre­sen­ta­tions on unfair dis­missal the impor­tance of pro­ce­dur­al fair­ness is a recur­ring theme.  This reflects sec­tions 387 (b) and (c ) of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) which stip­u­late that, in con­sid­er­ing whether it is sat­is­fied that a dis­missal was harsh, unjust or unrea­son­able, the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC)…

Jan 31, 2018

Prin­ci­pal Con­trac­tors: The Rules of Engagement

The role of prin­ci­pal con­trac­tor is crit­i­cal in man­ag­ing the work health and safe­ty risks on con­struc­tion projects. Even so, mis­un­der­stand­ings still arise as to the appli­ca­tion of the rules relat­ing to the engage­ment of prin­ci­pal con­trac­tors under the Work Health & Safe­ty Reg­u­la­tions 2017 (NSW) (WHS Reg­u­la­tions). (These rules are in…

Jan 19, 2018

Sex­u­al Harass­ment in the Post-Wein­stein Age What’s Next for Employers? 

The Post-Wein­stein Age The down­fall of one-time Hol­ly­wood heavy­weight Har­vey Wein­stein is increas­ing­ly look­ing like a sem­i­nal event, caus­ing a par­a­digm shift in the way sex­u­al harass­ment (and the bul­ly­ing and vic­tim­i­sa­tion that often accom­pa­nies such behav­iour) is addressed in the community. The Wein­stein alle­ga­tions opened the flood­gates, act­ing as a cat­a­lyst for numer­ous claims…

Nov 10, 2017

Quirks in mod­ern awards #1: One mon­th’s notice of ter­mi­na­tion under the Pro­fes­sion­al Employ­ees Award

The major­i­ty of employ­ees in Aus­tralia are cov­ered by an indus­try / occu­pa­tion spe­cif­ic mod­ern award. Whilst many of the awards con­tain sim­i­lar pro­vi­sions, in this series of occa­sion­al arti­cles we exam­ine unusu­al award claus­es which are some­times missed by employers. Most mod­ern awards con­tain word­ing in rela­tion to notice along…

Nov 10, 2017

Quirks in mod­ern awards #2: Five or six weeks’ annu­al leave under the Nurs­es Award 2010

The major­i­ty of employ­ees in Aus­tralia are cov­ered by an indus­try / occu­pa­tion spe­cif­ic mod­ern award. Whilst many of the awards con­tain sim­i­lar pro­vi­sions, in this series of occa­sion­al arti­cles we exam­ine unusu­al award claus­es which are some­times missed by employers. Most mod­ern awards con­tain word­ing in rela­tion to annu­al leave…

Nov 10, 2017

Quirks in mod­ern awards #3: No ​“small busi­ness” exemp­tion for redun­dan­cy pay under cer­tain awards

The major­i­ty of employ­ees in Aus­tralia are cov­ered by an indus­try / occu­pa­tion spe­cif­ic mod­ern award. Whilst many of the awards con­tain sim­i­lar pro­vi­sions, in this series of occa­sion­al arti­cles we exam­ine unusu­al award claus­es which are some­times missed by employers. Most mod­ern awards con­tain word­ing in rela­tion to redun­dan­cy pay…

Nov 10, 2017

Quirks in mod­ern awards #4: No over­time rates for casu­als in the Hor­ti­cul­ture Award 2010

The major­i­ty of employ­ees in Aus­tralia are cov­ered by an indus­try / occu­pa­tion spe­cif­ic mod­ern award. Whilst many of the awards con­tain sim­i­lar pro­vi­sions, in this series of occa­sion­al arti­cles we exam­ine unusu­al award claus­es which are some­times missed by employers. Most mod­ern awards pro­vide that all employ­ees – full-time, part-time…

Nov 6, 2017

Redun­dan­cies: New case sheds some light on con­sul­ta­tion and rede­ploy­ment obligations

Depend­ing on how an employ­er goes about things, ter­mi­nat­ing staff who are sur­plus to require­ments, can have very dif­fer­ent legal con­se­quences. This arti­cle looks at the lessons for employ­ers in this sit­u­a­tion as appar­ent from deci­sions by the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) and the Aus­tralian Indus­tri­al Rela­tions Commission. The Fair Work…

Oct 12, 2017

Employ­ment law myth No.7: ​“There’s no point hav­ing a restraint of trade in an employ­ment contract”

It is a com­mon mis­con­cep­tion that courts don’t enforce ​“restraints of trade” (those claus­es in employ­ment con­tracts pre­vent­ing for­mer employ­ees from com­pet­ing with their pre­vi­ous work­place, solic­it­ing their clients and/​or poach­ing staff). In truth, courts will and fre­quent­ly do, pre­vent for­mer employ­ees from act­ing in breach of their con­trac­tu­al restraints. That is…