Pub­li­ca­tions

10 Nov 2025

‘Tis the Sea­son to Avoid Fol­ly: Work­place Christ­mas Par­ties (2025 Edition)

As the fes­tive sea­son approach­es, many organ­i­sa­tions are prepar­ing for their annu­al Christ­mas par­ties. While these events are meant to be fun, they remain an exten­sion of the work­place — mean­ing employ­ers must bal­ance cel­e­bra­tion with respon­si­bil­i­ty. Cre­at­ing a safe, respect­ful envi­ron­ment is essen­tial to avoid legal and com­pli­ance risks dur­ing…

7 Nov 2025

Baby Priya’s Bill: Land­mark Fair Work Amend­ment Pro­tect­ing Paid Parental Leave After Child Loss

Baby Priya’s Bill amends the Fair Work Act to pro­tect employ­er-fund­ed paid parental leave for par­ents after child loss, still­birth, or adoption.Baby Priya’s Bill (​‘Bill’) passed par­lia­ment on 3 Novem­ber 2025 after par­ents of 42-day old Priya endured a loss no par­ent should have to suffer. Fol­low­ing the trag­ic pass­ing of her daugh­ter, the moth­er…

4 Nov 2025

Restraints and Real Estate – what is enforceable

What do post-employ­ment restraints in real estate real­ly mean for agents and employ­ers? In the prop­er­ty indus­try, employ­ment agree­ments often include three key restraints: non-solic­i­ta­tion, non-accep­tance, and non-com­pe­ti­tion. These claus­es aim to pro­tect client rela­tion­ships, con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion, and busi­ness good­will, but their enforce­abil­i­ty depends on how they’re draft­ed and applied…

27 Oct 2025

Putting the West­pac Work­ing From Home Case in Perspective

Can employ­ees real­ly work from home if they want to? In a recent Fair Work case an employ­ee won the right to work from home, but it turns out it’s not that sim­ple. It can only be request­ed under cer­tain con­di­tions and each case depends on the sit­u­a­tion of the employ­ee and…

8 Sept 2025

Fed­er­al Court Deci­sion Lim­its Effec­tive Use of Set-Off in Con­trac­tu­al Annu­al Salary Arrangements

The Deci­sionIn a recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion*, Jus­tice Per­ram held that while con­trac­tu­al set-off claus­es in an annu­al salary arrange­ment can be effec­tive for the sat­is­fac­tion of mod­ern award enti­tle­ments dur­ing a pay peri­od, they are inef­fec­tive between pay peri­ods. This is a sig­nif­i­cant lim­i­ta­tion on the prac­ti­cal use of con­trac­tu­al annu­al salary…

26 Aug 2025

Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence Fol­ly Called Out by Fair Work Commission

In the recent Fair Work Com­mis­sion deci­sion Mr Bran­den Dey­sel v Elec­tra Lift Co.[2025] FWC 2289, Deputy Pres­i­dent Slevin applied a crit­i­cal lens to the use of Chat­G­PT by the Appli­cant who was seek­ing an exten­sion of time to make an appli­ca­tion to deal with con­tra­ven­tions involv­ing dismissal.One fac­tor the FWC exam­ines in…

21 July 2025

Work­place Rela­tion­ships: The Legal Posi­tion (Cold­play Con­cert Edition)

The recent sto­ry of col­leagues (a Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer (CPO)) whose appar­ent rela­tion­ship was cap­tured on a ​“kiss cam” (jum­botron) at a Cold­play con­cert has cap­tured the pub­lic imag­i­na­tion, result­ing in thou­sands of arti­cles, memes and jokes. In the after­math of the inci­dent, the CEO has resigned…

7 July 2025

Dis­missal for Dissent?

The recent unfair dis­missal deci­sion of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion, Shaun Turn­er v Dare­bin City Coun­cil [2025] FWC 1763, in which Deputy Pres­i­dent Clan­cy held that the dis­missal of an employ­ee for, among oth­er things, alleged com­ments in response to an Acknowl­edg­ment of Coun­try before a ​‘tool­box’ meet­ing, was unfair, has gar­nered…

24 June 2025

Impor­tant Work­place Rela­tions Changes Effec­tive 1 July 2025

Employ­ers and employ­ees alike should be aware of impor­tant changes in the work­place rela­tions are­na, effec­tive 1 July 2025. From that date:the high income thresh­old for unfair dis­missal claims will increase to $183,100 per annum (from the present $175,000 per annum) and the com­pen­sa­tion lim­it will be $91,550 (equiv­a­lent to 6 months of the revised high income thresh­old amount) for dis­missals…

29 Apr 2025

Choose Your Own Respon­dent in Gen­er­al Pro­tec­tions Dis­missal Disputes

Usu­al­ly when one par­ty is tak­ing legal pro­ceed­ings against anoth­er the respon­dent enti­ty needs to be care­ful­ly iden­ti­fied. It can be fatal to the pro­ceed­ings if the wrong enti­ty is sued. This stands to rea­son giv­en the adverse con­se­quences that can flow from lit­i­ga­tion. There is usu­al­ly a process by which…