Marketing ER Strategies 
Last week, the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, announced an Australia-wide first scheme, offering a sick pay guarantee for casual workers in Victoria. Naturally, this has sparked an abundance of questions from employers and employees alike, so the ER Strategies team has broken down the key information below.
In March 2021, the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Act 2021 (Amendment Act) passed both Houses of Federal Parliament, which amended the Fair Work Act 2009 to include reforms to workplace rights and obligations for casual employees.
There are a number of factors that determine an employee’s eligibility to make an unfair dismissal claim. Just because an employee may feel as if they’ve been wronged, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are eligible to make an unfair dismissal claim.
In 2020 and 2021, businesses were forced into a reactive approach to COVID-19, having to quickly implement work from home processes, putting together COVID-19 safety plans and assessing COVID-19 vaccination strategies and policies in quick succession.
A legislative change in late December 2021 has seen employees in Western Australia officially gain an additional public holiday over the Easter long weekend, commencing this year. Prior to this change, only Good Friday and Easter Monday were gazetted Public Holidays for employees in WA, with Easter Sunday not recognised as a public holiday and treated as a normal day for employers and employees. However, on 16 December 2021, the Industrial Relations Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 was passed by State Parliament, making Easter Sunday a gazetted public holiday permanently into the future.
The issue of meal and rest breaks began with one class action in a single franchise network a few months ago, however now it has evolved to numerous class actions across multiple different franchises. The claims from the workers and their representation are essentially the same, they have been either deliberately denied rest or meal breaks, or the breaks haven’t been enforced as required under the awards or agreements they are covered by.
Disgruntled dismissed employees are increasingly lodging General Protections (GP) applications compared to Unfair Dismissal actions, despite unfair dismissals still being more common overall.
Whilst most businesses are winding down for a break over the Christmas period, some employers in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania are frantically trying to assess whether they will have sufficient staffing levels to survive the holidays.
As COVID-19 restrictions gradually lift across Australia, employees will be returning to work, or in some states, they may have already returned. It is important that employers therefore have a plan in place for their employees to return to work and how they will manage the COVID risk when they are back.
General Protections laws are intended to protect basic workplace rights, including freedom of association and shielding workers from workplace discrimination in accordance with international labour conventions. Under these laws, it is unlawful to take adverse action against a person because of a proscribed reason. Additionally, General Protections laws provide effective relief for persons who have suffered adverse actions, such as being discriminated against, victimised, or have experienced other forms of unfair treatment.
