Pub­li­ca­tions

Sep 16, 2020

Job­Keep­er 2.0: What employ­ers need to know

On 1 Sep­tem­ber 2020, the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment passed the Coro­n­avirus Eco­nom­ic Response Pack­age (Job­Keep­er Pay­ments) Amend­ment Bill 2020 which has enabled the exten­sion of the Job­Keep­er scheme. In this arti­cle we sum­marise the main points of the extend­ed scheme, dubbed Job­Keep­er 2.0. Employ­er eligibility  When the Job­Keep­er scheme was orig­i­nal­ly imple­ment­ed…

Sep 2, 2020

Right to toi­let break a relief for employees

In the recent deci­sion of Retail and Fast Food Work­ers Union Incor­po­rat­ed v Tan­tex Hold­ings Pty Ltd [2020] FCA 1258, an Aus­tralian court (name­ly the Fed­er­al Court) has, for the first time, held that employ­ees have a work­place right to use the toi­let and drink water while at work. This deter­mi­na­tion was made…

Sep 1, 2020

Your web­site users could expose you to copy­right infringement

Your web­site is under your con­trol and you should ensure that all the mate­r­i­al which you place on your web­site does not infringe the copy­right of oth­ers. Reg­u­lar audit­ing of your own web­site con­tent is there­fore advis­able to avoid copy­right infringement. How­ev­er, in cer­tain indus­tries, such as per­son­nel, edu­ca­tion and…

Sep 1, 2020

Intel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty in a Cyber World

Intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty is the legal asset in inno­va­tion. The val­ue of inno­va­tion to a busi­ness depends on the extent to which that inno­va­tion is direct­ed to the needs of the rel­e­vant mar­ket. If an inno­va­tion meets that need effec­tive­ly and unique­ly, it can pro­vide that busi­ness with sub­stan­tial­ly increased rev­enue and…

Sep 1, 2020

Can we build bet­ter build­ings in NSW?

The con­struc­tion indus­try in New South Wales is in cri­sis and has been at an impasse for a pro­longed peri­od of time. The ques­tion as to why we have so many build­ing defects, par­tic­u­lar­ly in mul­ti-storey res­i­den­tial apart­ment build­ings, was being asked long before the Opal and Mas­cot tow­er dis­as­ters and…

Aug 31, 2020

NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try Reform

The NSW Build­ing Com­mis­sion­er, David Chan­dler OAM, is at the ready with ​‘boots on the ground’, to ​‘rid the indus­try of dan­ger­ous builders, devel­op­ers and cer­ti­fiers’ and improve con­sumer con­fi­dence in the buy­ing of res­i­den­tial apart­ments in NSW with the com­mence­ment on 1 Sep­tem­ber 2020 of the Res­i­den­tial Apart­ment Build­ings (Com­pli­ance…

Aug 20, 2020

Fam­i­ly Law | Arbi­tra­tion vs Medi­a­tion, weigh­ing up what is right for you

There are var­i­ous options avail­able to assist par­ties to resolve their Fam­i­ly Law dis­pute out­side of lit­i­ga­tion, includ­ing medi­a­tion and arbi­tra­tion. This arti­cle pro­vides an overview of both options to assist you to con­sid­er what may be suit­able to resolve your dispute. Arbi­tra­tion Fam­i­ly Law Arbi­tra­tions have been avail­able to par­ties…

Aug 12, 2020

Claim­ing to be a mod­ern-day Mr Dar­cy was no defence to sex­u­al harassment

In the recent mat­ter of Hugh­es trad­ing as Beesley and Hugh­es Lawyers v Hill [2020] FCAFC 126 (Hugh­es v Hill), the Full Court of the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia reject­ed a cat­e­gori­sa­tion of con­duct by a lawyer towards his employ­ee as roman­tic ges­tures akin to those of the well-known lit­er­ary fig­ure, Mr Dar­cy, rather…

Aug 10, 2020

First 30 days | Hard­ings integration

To our val­ued clients and friends As most of you will already know, as of the 1 July 2020 the staff of Hard­ings Lawyers joined Swaab in their new­ly refur­bished offices.  With Covid-19 still hav­ing a major impact on office atten­dance with WFH arrange­ments and Part­ners and staff being on a ros­ter sys­tem to attend…

Aug 3, 2020

Address­ing Build­ing Defects in Stra­ta Schemes

Leg­isla­tive oblig­a­tions and func­tions for a stra­ta scheme can be over­whelm­ing in the first few years and it may take time to estab­lish a func­tion­ing stra­ta com­mit­tee. Obvi­ous­ly, the thought of defects in a stra­ta scheme are not what is on a lot own­er’s mind hav­ing just pur­chased a new unit. How­ev­er, with strict time…