Author: Oliver Judd

The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic can have severe financial consequences if your construction contract risks are not properly managed. Liquidated damages, increases in the price of labour (due to inefficiencies caused by social distancing and now having to work 7 days a week in some cases), increased costs for materials or equipment used or ordered … Continued

A whistleblower is an individual who comes forward and shares his/her knowledge on any wrongdoing which he/she thinks is happening in the whole organisation or in a specific division/department. The following categories of persons may be whistleblowers: an officer or employee (e.g. current and former employees who are permanent, part-time, fixed-term or temporary, interns, secondees, … Continued

The Fair Work Commission has made changes to the annualised salary provisions in a number of Modern Awards, which will substantially affect the way that annualised salary arrangements are administered by employers. These changes came into effect on 1 March 2020 and all employers using annualised salary arrangement must ensure that their arrangements are compliant. These … Continued

We recently received an enquiry from a member who was looking at entering into an enterprise agreement for its Brisbane employee base. In particular, the member was concerned about how that agreement would affect any overlapping project-specific enterprise agreements that it already had in place or may put in place in the future. As a … Continued

Businesses working in the construction industry should be advised that on 1 July 2019 an amendment to the Fair Work Regulations took effect requiring that all union entry permits, issued on or after 1 July 2019, incorporate the following: the permit holder’s full name; the name of the organisation that applied for the entry permit; … Continued

Case reference: Australian Building and Construction Commissioner v Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union [2018] HCA 3 A ruling from the High Court last week has confirmed that under the Fair Work Act, a court is entitled to make a “personal payment order” which ensures that a union official who has been required to pay a … Continued

The recent High Court decision of Maxcon Constructions Pty Ltd v Vadasz [2018] HCA 5 confirmed that any contract clause which ties the release of retention to some event under the Head Contract will be a “pay when paid” provision under the Security of Payment legislation and therefore that relevant clause is void or of … Continued

You can now serve notices (i.e. Payment Claims, Payment Schedules, Statutory Notices, Adjudication Applications etc) by way of email and the ability to serve any such notices by facsimile has been removed except where your contract provides for service by facsimile. These changes were brought about by the Electronic Transactions Legislation Amendment (Government Transactions) Act … Continued

A recent decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia has confirmed an employer’s right to direct employees to attend medical appointments. Grant v BHP Coal Pty Ltd was an appeal against a decision of a single member of the court that affirmed that the Fair Work Commission had not incorrectly dismissed Mr … Continued

The Federal Circuit Court has determined that although a fly in fly out (FIFO) worker was a casual employee under the enterprise agreement that covered his employment with a labour hire company, he was “other than a casual” for the purposes of the Fair Work Act 2009 and was therefore entitled to payment of accrued … Continued

On 3 November 2016, Justice Bromberg of the Federal Court dismissed an application for a declaration and penalties made by Fair Work Building and Construction (FWBC) against an organiser employed by the CFMEU. The organiser, who did not have a right of entry permit issued under the Fair Work Act (FW Act) and was therefore … Continued

The Fair Work Act 2009 allows a union official to enter premises to hold discussions with members and employees eligible to be members “during mealtimes or other breaks.”  The official must give the occupier of the premises between 24 hours and 14 days written notice of his or her intention to enter the premises. In … Continued