Employment Law

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

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

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

An ex employee of Toll holdings who submitted a falsified drug test result in support of his unfair dismissal application has been ordered to pay his former employer’s costs of more than $18,000.00 In making the order that the ex-employee pay all of Toll’s legal costs and witness expenses, Deputy President Gostencnik found that the … Continued

One of the principal objectives of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 is to promote and improve gender equality in employment and in the workplace. All non-public sector employers with 100 or more staff must submit a report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (the “WGEA”) between 1 April and 31 May each year for the preceding … Continued

A 60 year old Aircraft Engineer has won his job back after Jetstar terminated him for breaching ‘Cardinal Safety Rules’ at Avalon Airport in Victoria. The dismissed employee, Mr Gill had worked as a Licensed  Aircraft Maintenance Engineer for 30 years, the last four and half of which were for Jetstar. He had an exemplary employment … Continued

An employee who threatened and threw a senior engineer into a swimming pool, and fought with his supervisor at his employer’s Christmas party has failed in his unfair dismissal application. The employee, a project Co-Ordinator, had been employed by Future Engineering and Communication (FEC) since 2008. At the Christmas party held at FECs premises on … Continued

A number of amendments to the Fair Work Act came into effect on 27 November 2015. These amendments are those from the Federal Government’s Fair Work Amendment Bill that was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives. Following passage of the Bill, employers will be able to take proposed Greenfields Enterprise Agreements to the … Continued