Articles
In the middle of a pandemic that has left the nation in economic turmoil and prompted Australia’s first recession since 1991, the Victorian Government has passed the Wage Theft Bill 2020 (Vic) which puts employers around Victoria at risk of criminal prosecution. The Bill creates new criminal offences in Victoria for employers and their officers who “dishonestly” withhold money owed to employees, or fail to keep or falsify records. The Victorian Government pushed ahead with the Bill, despite strong objection from the National Retail Association and others about introducing such legislation at a time when many small businesses are struggling to recover from…
Read MoreOn 11 June 2020 the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Flexibility Measures) Bill 2020 passed both houses of Federal Parliament. The Bill received Royal Assent on 16 June 2020, and its changes will take effect from 1 July 2020. What is changing? Designed to improve women’s workforce participation, the Bill changes the paid parental leave (PPL) period from a single fixed 18-week period to a fixed 12-week period and a flexible 6-week (30 day) period. The fixed 12-week period will, as under the current scheme, be required to be taken from the commencement of the parental leave period. However, should the employee wish,…
Read MoreThe pandemic hasn’t hindered the Fair Work Ombudsman’s (the FWO) efforts to investigate and prosecute wage non-compliance in the retail and fast food sectors. The FWO has recently secured record penalties against companies that have underpaid their workers and failed to satisfy their recordkeeping obligations. In May, following prosecution by the FWO, the Federal Court issued the operators of three Hero Sushi outlets with record penalties of $891,000. In the same month, the FWO have also secured penalties of $209,000 against two restaurants in Melbourne. Payroll officers fined for fishy employment records In February 2019, the FWO undertook court action against…
Read MoreIt was impossible to miss the headlines following the Full Court of the Federal Court handing down its 273-page judgment in the case WorkPac Pty Ltd v Rossato [2020] FCAFC 84 (Rossato). The case was a direct challenge to an earlier judgment of the Court in WorkPac Pty Ltd v Skene [2018] FCAFC 131 (Skene), which found that another long-standing employee of WorkPac had been incorrectly engaged as a casual, and as such was entitled to accrue paid leave entitlements. Importantly, the case does not mean that casual employees are now entitled to accrue and be paid leave. However, the case redefines what it means to be a casual…
Read MoreThe Coalition has managed to form a majority government in a fiercely contested election last Saturday. While Labor had spent much of its election campaign outlining a near-overhaul to the industrial relations landscape, the Morrison Government’s IR platform was more aligned with the status quo. Here is everything we know about the LNP’s plans to change the Fair Work Act. Casual employment The right for casual employees to convert to full-time or part-time employment has existed under most modern awards since October last year. The Fair Work Amendment (Right to Request Casual Conversion) Bill 2019 would have seen a similar entitlement under the…
Read MoreIn something of a speed record for the Australian judicial system, less than three weeks after final submissions were made the Federal Court of Australia yesterday ruled that Qantas workers who have been stood down are not entitled to paid personal (sick) leave or compassionate leave. This case may have significant ramifications for employers nationwide as they struggle to cope with the interaction of leave entitlements and stand down during the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue at stake As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in mid-March Qantas announced its intention to stand down about two-thirds of its workforce of…
Read MoreDue to the speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic spread and required social distancing to ‘flatten the curve’, many companies were forced to either stand down their workforces or organise and implement alternative working arrangements (including work from home arrangements) with little opportunity to reflect on the challenges associated with either course of action, including later returning the workforce to work. And it seems just as quickly, the success of efforts to ‘flatten the curve’ in Australia mean that some of us will soon be returning back to our workplaces. But it’s fair to say that the way we work…
Read MoreLate Friday evening, the Treasurer tabled the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Amendment Rules (No. 2) 2020 (the Amendments), which amends the rules of the Federal Government’s JobKeeper program. The Amendments give effect to changes announced by the Treasurer on Friday 24 April 2020, including important clarifications to the “one in, all in” aspect of the JobKeeper scheme and the eligibility of junior employees. Multiple other amendments have been made, however due to the interest in these particular topics as expressed over our Workplace Relations Hotline, we take this opportunity to explore these in more depth. One in, all in…
Read MoreAlthough reasonably new (and still changing), the JobKeeper program has, so far, had a mixed effect on businesses. Whilst some employers have embraced it wholeheartedly others, especially those with a workforce comprised largely of casual employees usually earning less than $1,500 a fortnight, have been more hesitant to undertake the significant cost increase to meet the requirements of the scheme. In the retail industry in particular, the NRA has been receiving reports of casual employees making themselves unavailable for work for unsupported reasons or indeed no reason at all, secure in the knowledge that they will be paid $1,500 a…
Read MoreMany of our readers will doubtless be aware, by virtue of the many, many circulars issued in recent weeks, of the temporary amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) which allow employers greater flexibility in the engagement of employees who are receiving JobKeeper payments. These measures include statutory authorization to direct employees to work fewer hours than their contracts, or their modern award or enterprise agreement, would otherwise require them to work, without any penalty to the employer provided certain requirements are met. Relatively little attention appears to have been brought to amendments made to 103 modern awards on the same day that…
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