From 26 August 2024, employees will formally be given the right to disconnect from all workplace communications outside of regular working hours.

Union officials with a valid permit have a right to enter a workplace to hold discussions with employees or investigate suspected contraventions of the Fair Work Act and other instruments such as awards and enterprise agreements.

What happens if these officials hinder or obstruct your workplace?

In recent legal developments, a class action lawsuit has been initiated against the fast-food giant’s employment law compliance.

From 1 August 2023, all businesses are required to pay their employees up to 10-days paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. In November 2022, the Australian Government made significant changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (“the Act”) and the National Employment Standards in November 2022 through the Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Act 2022. This is an increase from the previous entitlement under the National Employment Standards which only entitled employees to 5 days of unpaid leave.

Surveillance in the workplace, is largely an accepted and understood part of the Australian workplace in some way, shape or form. The most common form of workplace surveillance would be by camera but it is not limited to this.

There has recently been a change to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) that all employers and business owners need to be aware of.

A recent Fair Work Commission decision over in the ACT allowed MSS Security to use telephone recordings of an employee to defend the employee’s unfair dismissal claim. Their decision hinged on the inclusion of a surveillance clause in the employee’s contract. While ACT based, the case does highlight the importance of understanding your state’s legislation about workplace surveillance so that you can feel protected at work and can raise any concerns you have about privacy and safety.

Recently, there was a fascinating case of alleged workplace bullying heard by the Fair Work Commission. The case concerned Mr Wang, a guest service agent at a Hilton Hotel in Darwin and his superior, Ms Lin, the Guest Relations Manager. Mr Wang alleged that Ms Lin had bullied him while at work and through social media outside of work. He decided to take legal action against Darwin International Hotels Pty Ltd after the Hilton Darwin HR Manager, Ms Jackson, dismissed his concerns that Ms Lin had bullied him and when he was subsequently passed over for a promotion.

When hiring someone, employers might hesitate to ask questions about someone’s medical history due to privacy concerns or the risk of a discrimination claim. What if the condition effects their ability to perform the role? Does the employee have a duty of disclosure, and if so, to what extent?

What does this mean for your workplace?

When dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace, the onus has largely been on victims to make a complaint. The process is often traumatising and many victims either decide to withdraw the complaint or not make the complaint at all. The recent incidents in our own Federal Parliament can testify to the private and public anguish it can cause.

Many workers seek flexible working arrangements so that they can achieve work/life balance and juggle their other responsibilities outside workplace. However, what happens when such a request clashes with the operational needs of the business? What if it impacts business productivity?

In April 2022, the High Court heard a case concerning the mental health of an employee and the employer’s duty to their employee. In Kozarov v State of Victoria, Ms Kozarov suffered post-traumatic stress disorder because of the type of cases she dealt with as part of the Victorian Office of Public Prosecution’s Specialist Sexual Offences Unit. She sued the Office of Public Prosecution (OPP) because they had failed their duty of care and the case ended up before the High Court.

Each year the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) announces the areas they will be focusing on.

The FWO has announced their priorities for 2022-23. Their key focus remains protecting small business employers and employees and vulnerable workers.

Since 2018 the National Employment Standards (“NES”) have made a provision for 5 days unpaid domestic violence leave as a minimum entitlement for all federal system employees, which is most people.

Domestic violence leave allows employees to take leave if they need to deal with family violence and/or domestic violence and it is not practical for them to do so outside of their ordinary hours of work. The employee could take the leave to go to court, communicate with the police or take steps to ensure their safety or the safety of their family.

The concept of the employee’s duty of fidelity to their employer is an implied obligation central to all employment contracts. The implied obligation is that the employee has a duty to serve their employer faithfully. Employees must also avoid situations where their interests and those of their employer conflict.

A brief run down of what we will be covering in each seminar.

Underpayment is an ongoing and increasingly commonplace issue in Australia.

That having been said, in Australia there is a complex set of employment law legislation on a Commonwealth level, with some variance from State to State as well as over 100 employment awards. In addition to the assorted employment awards, employees may be covered by an enterprise agreement or another form of registered agreement, in which case the Awards don’t apply. However, this complex web of legislative obligations, agreements and awards can be difficult to navigate and not all instances of underpayment are intentional. Unfortunately for Australian employers, this opaqueness does not absolve them from understanding their obligations.

As workers begin to head back into the office after the Christmas holidays, a new wave of COVID-19 infections has spurred more changes to the rules. These can be hard to keep up with. Here are some of the latest changes, as of 17 January 2022.

In this episode, Nicole speaks with Kayte Lewis from Voice Lawyers about the confronting issues of the Covid 19 vaccination and health orders in the work place.

On Friday, August 13 the Fair Work Ombudsman updated its advice in relation to the issue of COVID vaccination and the workplace. This topic has become quite controversial over recent weeks and looks to be posing businesses with significant issues going forward.