Are Performance Reviews Worth Your Effort?
The Performance Review Performance reviews can be tricky. How often have you carried out a performance review, only for you to do all the talking, or for the employee to give no feedback, or only negative feedback? Because of this, performance reviews can be a one sided exercise. But, it doesn’t have to be like […]
Steps You Can Take Against Workplace Harassment and Discrimination
What defines workplace harassment and discrimination? Harassment involves unwelcome behaviour that intimidates, offends or humiliates a person because of a particular personal characteristic such as race, age, gender, disability, religion or sexuality. Sexual harassment includes sending explicit or sexually suggestive emails, displaying offensive or pornographic posters or screen savers, and asking intrusive questions about someone’s […]
What Employers Should Know To Properly Protect Intellectual Property
If your employees or independent contractors create intellectual property, it often becomes your property. For example, s 35(6) of the Copyright Act 1968 broadly provides that the copyright in a literary, dramatic, artistic or musical work made by an employee or independent contractor pursuant to an employment contract or contract for service will be owned […]
Workplace Bullying: What Can Fair Work Do?
When you’re faced with a difficult issue like workplace bullying, it can be hard to know who to turn to. And even if you do know who to contact, there’s sometimes uncertainty about what they can help with and how much they can do. If you’re being bullied at work, it’s important to know how […]
Is Uber’s Structure a ‘Legal Fiction’ to Avoid Employee Entitlements?
The British Employment Tribunal recently held that Uber drivers should be treated as ‘workers’ for the purposes of various British statutes, in proceedings brought against Uber by current and former Uber drivers. The decision would be akin to the Fair Work Commission holding that Uber drivers are ‘employees’ for the purposes of the Fair Work […]
Three Golden Rules For Restraints Of Trade
How can employers make restraints of trade enforceable? The court’s decision in the 2016 case set out below suggests that there are three golden rules to follow. In Just Group Ltd v Peck [2016] VSC 614, McDonald J held that a restraint of trade clause in a senior executive’s contract was void because it was […]
Directors and Executives Beware: Liability Under Section 550
The Fair Work Ombudsman (‘FWO’) conducted an investigation into a cleaning business called Grouped Property Services (‘GPS’). The investigation revealed numerous failures to pay minimum entitlements and to comply with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (‘FW Act’), the Cleaning Services Award 2010 (Cth) and the Clerks Modern Award 2010 (Cth). Many of these failures […]
Secondments and Changes of Duty
Suppose that you were to go on secondment for a year to a different business, or a different arm of the business that you work for. The position that you were required to perform on secondment was a little different to that which you ordinarily performed prior to secondment. You get injured during your secondment, […]
Penalties ordered against Employer and Directors personally for breaches of the Fair Work Act
The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking an increasingly aggressive approach in seeking to recover civil penalties from employers who have failed to pay their employees in accordance with the applicable Modern Award. In the case of Fair Work Ombudsman v Mamak Pty Ltd [2016] FCCA 2104, Judge Smith of the Federal Circuit Court ordered Mamak, […]
How does Major Change Affect Employment?
Most Modern Awards contain a requirement for employers to consult with employees that they have “made a definite decision to introduce major changes in production, program, organisation, structure or technology that are likely to have significant effects on employees”. But what is a ‘major change’? In Port Kembla Coal Terminal Ltd v Construction, Forestry, Mining and […]