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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…

Swaab Brand of Service

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Unfair con­tract terms in out­dat­ed stan­dard form con­tracts could cost you a fine of $50 mil­lion (Com­pa­nies) or $2.5 mil­lion (Indi­vid­u­als)

If you have not reviewed your stan­dard form con­struc­tion con­tracts since 9 Novem­ber 2023 (when the amend­ed Com­pe­ti­tion and Con­sumer Act 2010 (Cth) – Sched­ule 2 (ACL) became effec­tive), you could be at risk of any/​all unfair con­tract terms being declared void and hav­ing to pay a penalty. This means that:Any stan­dard form con­tract…

Own­ers Cor­po­ra­tions / Asso­ci­a­tions now sub­ject to Unfair Con­tract Terms 

Under the new stra­ta law reforms com­menc­ing 1 July 2025 (the Stra­ta Schemes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Act 2025 (No. 14) NSW) a key change that will impact own­ers cor­po­ra­tions and asso­ci­a­tions[1] are the unfair con­tract terms (UCT) pro­vi­sions.In line with Aus­tralian Con­sumer Law, UCT will now be banned and will apply to:con­tracts for a sup­ply of…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“ABC may face ​‘sig­nif­i­cant penal­ties’ after ​‘can­cel cul­ture’ sack­ing ruled unlaw­ful”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 26 June 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“ABC may face ​‘sig­nif­i­cant penal­ties’ after ​‘can­cel cul­ture’ sack­ing ruled unlaw­ful”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 26 June 2025To read the full arti­cle click here…

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, “‘Creep­ing’ unfair dis­missal thresh­old will increase to $183k on 1 July”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 27 June 2025

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, “‘Creep­ing’ unfair dis­missal thresh­old will increase to $183k on 1 July”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 27 June 2025To read the full arti­cle click here …

Joshua Bernie

Exper­tiseCon­struc­tionStra­ta…

Press Release | We are pleased to announce five senior pro­mo­tions in key prac­tice areas of the firm effec­tive, 1 July 2025

Con­grat­u­la­tions:Maris­sa Arag­o­na — AssociateRamesh Chamala — AssociateAaron Boz — AssociateWilliam Clement — Senior AssociateKel­lie Van Mun­ster — Spe­cial Counsel “I am per­son­al­ly delight­ed to announce the pro­mo­tions of Maris­sa Arag­o­na, Ramesh Chamala and Aaron Boz to the role of Asso­ciate, William Clement to Senior Asso­ciate and Kel­lie Van Mun­ster to Spe­cial Coun­sel effec­tive…

Impor­tant Stra­ta Law Changes — Effec­tive 1 July 2025

The Stra­ta Schemes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Act 2025 (Amend­ing Act) intro­duces fur­ther reform in Gov­ern­men­t’s ongo­ing review of the stra­ta legislation. On 1 July 2025, the sec­ond tranche of changes under the Amend­ing Act com­menced, which will impact or give effect to the following: enhanced pro­tec­tion of own­ers cor­po­ra­tions from stra­ta man­agers, build­ing man­agers and oth­ers…

Stra­ta Reme­di­al Construction

Our spe­cialised team can pro­vide you with tar­get­ed advice for your reme­di­al project with full con­sid­er­a­tion of the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (DBP Act) and accom­pa­ny­ing regulations. Stra­ta Build­ing Main­te­nance & Reme­di­al Works include: Design & con­struc­tion contractsCon­struct only contractssuper­in­ten­dent / con­sul­tan­cy agreementsSub-con­trac­tor agreementsTailed advice on con­tract issues and DBPA Requirements:Dis­pute resolutionLit­i­ga­tion & enforcementSOPA ClaimsRange of exper­tise include: Project doc­u­mentssuites of…

Ope­nAI’s screen­less future on pause amidst trade mark dispute

Back­groundIn ear­ly May, Ope­nAI sur­prised the tech world with news of an esti­mat­ed $6.4 bil­lion part­ner­ship and acqui­si­tion involv­ing ​“io”, a new ven­ture led by renowned design­er Sir Jony Ive. Ive is best known for cre­at­ing icon­ic Apple prod­ucts like the iPhone and Apple Watch. The col­lab­o­ra­tion aims to devel­op a ground­break­ing…

10 Tips For Stra­ta Reme­di­al Con­struc­tion Contracts

Are you won­der­ing why your stra­ta work to repair or main­tain your stra­ta build­ing is over bud­get, rid­dled with delays, plagued with costs over­runs and vari­a­tions at every turn?It is impor­tant to con­sid­er and fol­low these steps:Before ten­der­ing for the work to be done, have your build­ing con­tract, con­sul­tan­cy agree­ment and/​or sep­a­rate…

Press Release | New Senior Asso­ciate Appoint­ment — Joshua Bernie

With more than 10 years’ expe­ri­ence in stra­ta and con­struc­tion dis­pute res­o­lu­tion across Aus­tralia and the UK, Joshua brings with him a wealth of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise. He has act­ed for own­ers cor­po­ra­tions, devel­op­ers, builders, and indi­vid­ual own­ers in a broad range of stra­ta, con­struc­tion, and prop­er­ty-relat­ed dis­putes. Joshua has con­duct­ed pro­ceed­ings in…

Con­struc­tion con­tract time­frames and their inter­ac­tion with the NSW Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment legislation.

Mark Glynn, Con­struc­tion Part­ner at Swaab con­sid­ers the recent deci­sion of Shar­vain Facades Pty Ltd (Admin­is­tra­tors Appoint­ed) v Roberts Co (NSW) Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 606TimeTime is an impor­tant aspect of the deliv­ery of a build­ing and con­struc­tion project.A suc­cess­ful project con­tract not only spec­i­fies the time with­in which the works must be car­ried…

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…