What are an employer’s rights to require an employee to work on a public holiday? What are the employee’s rights not to work? We consider the requirements under the Fair Work Act.
We recently had a client pose the question “Can we monitor an employee’s emails and what are the privacy concerns?” In researching the answer we came to the conclusion that the law is very confusing, with no one committing absolutely clearly what an employer’s obligations are. However, we offer a practical solution to the issue.
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 FWO’s successful prosecution of the Yogurberry franchise has raised many questions on how franchisors can protect themselves from “accessorial liability” – being an accessory for payroll contraventions of the Fair Work Act.
Wage theft has become a prominent issue in Australia, with the FWO recovering over $500 million in underpayments across the previous financial year. This figure has been growing year on year, highlighting that the issue has likely been there for sometime, yet is now coming into the spotlight. As a result, both Queensland and Victoria have brought in legislation.
State governments in Victoria and New South Wales are preparing to move into the next phase of the COVID-19 re-opening roadmap.
State governments in Victoria and New South Wales are moving into the next phase of their COVID-19 re-opening roadmap.
One of the most common workplace issue in Australia is work-related stress. As an employer, how should you be handling this?
Last month, we published a reminder that the deadline for assessing casual employees’ eligibility for conversion to permanent employment and making an offer (or ‘non-offer’) was fast approaching. All employers of casual employees (other than ‘small business employers’) were required to complete a number of actions prior to the 27th of September 2021 deadline, including assessing and notifying casual staff about whether they are eligible for casual conversion under the Fair Work Act 2009.
Imagine you have a problem employee (perhaps you don’t have to imagine, you might already have one!), who is not up to your performance standards, despite still being on probation. They often come in late, leave early, take sickies and can’t grasp the concept of deadlines. They are frustrating and de-motivating your other employees – and you too.
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