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 […]
Written by Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal In a recent application for relief from unfair dismissal, Commissioner Cribb considered circumstances where an employee requested changes to her working arrangements, and then resigned her employment when the employer was unable to accommodate those changes. The employee argued that she was forced to resign her […]
By Sooraj Sidhu and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal Yesterday, the Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) president Iain Ross responded to reports commissioned last year, which urged the establishment of a ‘Small Business Division’ of the Fair Work Commission and the reduction of red tape associated with unfair dismissal and adverse action claims. The news comes following […]
By Victoria Hansen and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ruled that a worker who threw a full glass of beer over the heads of his colleagues at an official company Christmas party was justifiably dismissed. This is a significant decision regarding the dismissal of employees for out-of-hours conduct. Sione Vai […]
By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal Last Thursday a five-member Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission, headed by Vice President Adam Hatcher, handed down its decision in the Loaded Rates in Agreements Case. This case considered eight (later reduced to five) enterprise agreements for which the Commission’s approval was sought. Each of […]
By Alexander Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal Following a protracted legal battle that involved an initial hearing, an appeal and a re-hearing, the Fair Work Commission has held that an employer had no right to accept the repeated resignations of a distressed employee undergoing internal investigation. Bupa Aged Care Australia Pty Ltd t/a Bupa […]
By Lindsay Carroll, Director and Sid Sidhu, Workplace Relations Advisor, NRA Legal Earlier in 2017, the Fair Work Commission (‘FWC’) determined that the City of Sydney RSL and Community Club had constructively dismissed a casual employee, when it denied the employee from working further “change box” shifts and reduced her average weekly hours by 75 […]
Fair Work Commission to scrutinise “loaded rates” of pay within Enterprise Agreements By Sid Sidhu, NRA Legal Following the recent win for retailers and the Federal Court’s decision to uphold the penalty rate cuts across five Modern Awards, the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has invited peak union and employer groups to […]
This week we saw the NSW Government pass its laws extending the minimum lifespan of gift cards from one year to three years. I know from speaking to many members that this will cause headaches in a range of areas – from accounting for unused cards on your balance sheets through to regulatory red tape […]
The reporting over the past week on the penalty rates case has been fascinating to say the least. In many ways, it has illustrated how deeply Australian’s misconceptions have been about the issue, but more importantly, how easy it has been for those with a vested interest to heighten those misconceptions to erode the country’s […]
Retailers praise Federal Court for preserving independent umpire’s integrity, after union challenge to penalty rates quashed The National Retail Association (NRA) has this morning praised the Federal Court for rejecting the unions’ attempts to have the penalty rates ruling of the independent umpire, the Fair Work Commission (FWC), overruled. The Court has this morning handed […]
Two challenges to the penalty rates ruling brought by worker unions have now been heard in the Federal Court, with both cases heard together last week, in front of a full bench in Melbourne. After joining other employer and business groups including the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Hotels Association and the NSW Business Chamber […]
By Alex Millman and Justine Ansell, NRA Legal The union challenge to the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut penalty rates in the retail, fast food and hospitality sectors wrapped up yesterday, with the Federal Court reserving its decision to be handed down at a later date. With five judges, approximately a dozen barristers, and […]
On Tuesday 5 September 2017, the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017 was passed with amendments by both houses of Parliament. The Bill was given Royal Assent by the Governor-General on 14 September 2017, becoming an Act (the VW Act) which will re-write parts of the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act). In brief, the VW Act: […]
By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal In mid-July this year, the Fair Work Commission heard an application by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association to include provision for paid blood donor leave in the retail, fast food, and hair and beauty awards. NRA, along with other industry groups, opposed the application, arguing […]
By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal … is paved with good intentions. An employer who moved forward the date of an employee’s redundancy so that she would be aware of it before she returned from maternity leave has been found to have breached the Fair Work Act (FW Act). Power v BOC Ltd […]
By Alex Millman, Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Restructuring a business often involves making employees redundant. This is an unfortunate but logical truth. There is a natural tension between the freedom for businesses to be able to structure their operations in the most effective manner possible, and the need for workers to have […]
Written by Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Employee union, United Voice, is set to merge with the National Union of Workers (‘NUW’) following a signed Memorandum of Understanding by both organisations to explore options for a “new union model”. The unions have revealed plans to meet in November to further examine how the […]
Written by Alex Millman Members will recall from previous news alerts that there are several pieces of legislation amending the Fair Work Act currently waiting for the attention of the Senate before they can become law. Foremost among these is the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017, which aims to make franchisors and […]
By Alex Millman After a somewhat turbulent final month to the financial year, the time has come for all industries to take stock of what had been going on and what we can expect to see in industrial relations as we go into the new year. Here are just some of the events that you […]