Pub­li­ca­tions

15 Aug 2018

Resign­ing from your employ­ment — can you with­draw your res­ig­na­tion? — Lat­est developments

In recent times there has been a string of deci­sions from the Fair Work Com­mis­sion direct­ed to whether and in what cir­cum­stances, an employ­ee can assert that a res­ig­na­tion giv­en in the heat of the moment which is with­drawn, may not be relied upon by their employer.  To those fol­low­ing the titan­ic strug­gle…

1 Aug 2018

Do you have to pay an employ­ee where their own con­duct has pre­vent­ed them from per­form­ing their job?

An employ­er might be for­giv­en for think­ing that where an employ­ee’s con­duct has ren­dered them unable to per­form their role, then there is no oblig­a­tion to pay them wages for the rel­e­vant peri­od of down­time. How­ev­er, this ques­tion is one which is now the sub­ject of a Full Bench deci­sion of…

16 Mar 2018

Fac­ing an Inves­ti­ga­tion by the Fair Work Ombuds­man — What is at stake?

It is not uncom­mon for employ­ers to face inves­ti­ga­tion by the Fair Work Ombuds­man (“FWO”) where for exam­ple, a dis­grun­tled employ­ee has com­plained to the FWO about a work­place issue such as a fail­ure to pay ade­quate wages or to meet award requirements. Expe­ri­ence sug­gests that the reac­tion of employ­ers to the FWO’s…

12 Mar 2018

Out­er limit/​maximum term employ­ment con­tracts their future after the Nav­i­tas decision

Intro­duc­tion The deci­sion of the Full Bench of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion on 8 Decem­ber 2017 in Saeid Khayam v Nav­i­tas Eng­lish Pty Ltd t/​a Nav­i­tas Eng­lish [2017] FWCFB 5162 (Nav­i­tas) has nar­rowed the oppor­tu­ni­ty for employ­ers to rely upon out­er lim­it or max­i­mum term con­tracts as a defence to a claim for unfair dismissal. An…

6 Mar 2018

ACCC report high­lights penal­ties for fran­chisors for fail­ing to meet dis­clo­sure obligations

The ACCC has recent­ly pub­lished its bi-annu­al ​“Small busi­ness in focus” report (​‘the Report’) for the peri­od July to Decem­ber 2017, which includes insights into the work that the ACCC under­takes to pro­tect franchisees.The Report includes sta­tis­tics about the num­ber of reports it receives about ​“Fran­chis­ing Code relat­ed issues” that…

12 Feb 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…

6 Nov 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…

12 Sept 2017

Do ​“out­er lim­its” employ­ment con­tracts have a future?

Intro­duc­tion The offer­ing of a series of ​“fixed term” con­tracts to employ­ees (often by the use of ​“out­er lim­it” or ​“max­i­mum term” con­tracts), has been seen as an attrac­tive strat­e­gy for employ­ing per­sons and then hav­ing their employ­ment ter­mi­nate with­out attract­ing the unfair dis­missal pro­vi­sions of indus­tri­al rela­tions leg­is­la­tion. An ​“out­er…

24 Aug 2017

Fran­chisors beware: ACCC report high­lights actions tak­en against franchisors

The ACCC has recent­ly pub­lished its bian­nu­al ​“Small Busi­ness in Focus” report (​“the Report”) which describes the work it has under­tak­en con­cern­ing small busi­ness, fran­chis­ing and agri­cul­ture over the first six months of this year.[1]Part of the Report high­lights the enforce­ment actions it has tak­en against fran­chisors for alleged breach­es…

8 Aug 2017

Are dis­missals gen­uine redun­dan­cies when employ­ees have reject­ed a pay cut?

Con­sid­er this sit­u­a­tion. You run Com­pa­ny A. Your busi­ness involves sup­ply­ing a ser­vice to Com­pa­ny B. You have been pro­vid­ing this ser­vice at a set price for a num­ber of years and engage a team of employ­ees to facil­i­tate the deliv­ery of the ser­vice. Due to rea­sons out­side of your con­trol Com­pa­ny B indi­cates that…