By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal All too often, tales from the Fair Work Commission reveal the woes of what happens when employers are too trigger-happy in sacking their employees. When employers lose unfair dismissal claims, it is usually because they have jumped the gun and dismissed the employee without: gathering sufficient evidence […]
By Sooraj Sidhu and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal In an unusual case before the Fair Work Commission, an employee has been ordered to pay indemnity costs after finding that she continued to press an unfair dismissal application that was “doomed to fail”. Ordinarily, parties to a claim before the Fair Work Commission will bear their […]
By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal When employees are absent from work on sick leave, employers often have to walk a narrow line between the lawful and the unlawful. On the one hand, the employee has the right to be absent on sick leave, and interfering with that right can land you on […]
By Emma Treherne and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal An employer who deliberately withheld parental leave payments to an employee has been ordered to pay a whopping $98,700.00 in penalties. Judge Nicholls of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia held that both the employer and company director of the employer broke the law by, amongst other […]
By Alexander Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The Federal Circuit Court has rejected an Australia Post employee’s claim for almost $200,000 of unpaid entitlements, which he alleged he had accrued by working two jobs for his employer at the same time. Judge McNab held that the two jobs were separate and distinct. Lacson v […]
By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Readers may recall our previous article in which we discussed the requirement on employers to consult with their employees when undertaking a business restructure (see article here). In that article we identified that of the three matters that make up a ‘genuine redundancy’ under the Fair Work […]
By Alexander Millman and Angela Szczepanski, NRA Legal Ms Shahin Tavassoli v Bupa Aged Care Mosman A recent case reminds employers that care must be taken when relying on evidence obtained from workplace surveillance to dismiss an employee, and the need to afford employees procedural fairness even when it appears to be an open-and-shut case. […]
by Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Full Court affirms employer’s right to compel medical assessment Grant v BHP Coal Pty Ltd [2017] FCAFC 42 (10 March 2017) The Full Federal Court has confirmed that employers have the right to dismiss an employee should they refuse to attend a medical appointment to assess their […]
jobactive is a an Australian Government program to assist more Australians into work. It connects job seekers with employers and is delivered by a network of jobactive providers in over 1700 locations across Australia. A jobactive provider can help you access wage subsidies of up to $6,500 (GST inclusive) for employing eligible job seekers. Up […]
This week the NRA Ready for Retail Program has reached our 51st job outcome for our program, which is funded through the Queensland Government Skilling Queenslanders for Work (SQW) Program. Danielle Owen trained in our course in Chermside and undertook her work experience at the Chemist Warehouse in Ashgrove. She did a great job, with […]
Applications are now open for eligible employers to access the Queensland Government’s Back to Work Employer Support Payments. This $100 million Back to Work regional jobs package specifically targets jobseekers and employers outside the southeast corner of Queensland and includes payments of $10,000 for employers who hire an unemployed worker, rising to $15,000 for the […]
Research has identified that organisations are unconsciously discriminating against gender types in the initial stages of hiring employees. In traditional corporate management roles, men are more likely to be hired than women. Whereas in nursing, men are less likely to be considered for the role over women as the role is considered feminine. Although discrimination is […]
Gen Y, millennials, the internet generation – whatever you call them, younger workers are the future of your business. And whatever you think of their values and motivations, they are career focused and know what they ideally want to attain. The problem lies in that they’re often not sure how to achieve this. […]
The recent case of Fair Work Ombudsman v F.L. Press Pty Ltd & Anor (No 2) [2015] FCCA 2967 (4 November 2015) serves as a timely reminder to employers to seek advice as to the appropriate classification of employees, and be mindful of what actions might be considered adverse to the employee and open the […]
According to the Fair Work Commission’s newly-released annual report, general protections claims involving termination of an employee has risen by 17.5% in 2014-15. This increase is slightly down in comparison to the previous year. However, the number of claims grew to a total of 3382, with around one third of them allowed to proceed to […]
An employer has been unable to successfully establish that they dismissed a client analyst as a result of poor performance. Employment of Mr Anderson with BNP was subject to a three month probationary period. Just days prior to his termination, Mr Anderson was confronted by his supervisor in earshot of other employees on 19 March […]