Pub­li­ca­tions

Jul 10, 2020

COVID-19 | Fair Work Com­mis­sion con­sid­ers fac­tors impact­ing redun­dan­cy payouts

In four (relat­ed) cas­es, the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) recent­ly ruled in favour of an employ­er by reduc­ing the redun­dan­cy pay­outs owed to four of its employees. These four cas­es, Hyper­Life Pty Ltd t/​a Acme Pre­stonv v Kel­ly Bren­nan [2020] FWC 3080, Hyper­Life Pty Ltd t/​a Acme Pre­ston v Erin Black [2020] 3081…

Jun 24, 2020

The NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try – where are we at in 2020?

No-one could have antic­i­pat­ed the impact that so many unre­lat­ed, but col­lid­ing events, has had on all indus­try sec­tors through­out Aus­tralia in 2020. Whilst the long-term eco­nom­ic impact of these events on the con­struc­tion indus­try is unknown, this indus­try is one sec­tor which has been able to con­tin­ue work­ing, even…

Jun 15, 2020

Fair Work Com­mis­sion Full Bench Con­firms Gig Work­er’s Status

The sta­tus of gig econ­o­my work­ers has been a source of exten­sive debate in recent years. Michael Byrnes, Part­ner and Emi­ly Capen­er, Solic­i­tor exam­ine a recent deci­sion by the Full Bench of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion which con­firmed that deliv­ery dri­vers work­ing for gig econ­o­my giant Uber Eats are not employees. In Ami­ta…

Jun 10, 2020

Statu­to­ry Enti­tle­ments for ​‘Casu­al’ Employ­ees: Anoth­er Work­Pac Decision

The Full Court of the Fed­er­al Court recent­ly hand­ed down a deci­sion con­firm­ing that employ­ees cat­e­gorised and paid as ​“casu­als” with reg­u­lar and sys­tem­at­ic work­ing pat­terns might be enti­tled to receive the paid leave enti­tle­ments of a per­ma­nent employee.  This deci­sion, Work­Pac Pty Ltd v Rossato [2020] FCAFC 84 (Rossato), close­ly fol­lows the deci­sion…

May 19, 2020

COVID-19 | The Fed­er­al Court rules on per­son­al leave dur­ing stand down

In the deci­sion Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Elec­tri­cal, Elec­tron­ic, Ener­gy, Infor­ma­tion, Postal, Plumb­ing and Allied Ser­vices Union of Aus­tralia v Qan­tas Air­ways Lim­it­ed [2020] FCA 656, hand­ed down on 18 May 2020, Jus­tice Flick of the Fed­er­al Court ruled that employ­ees are not enti­tled to access paid personal/​carer’s leave or com­pas­sion­ate leave dur­ing a peri­od…

May 18, 2020

COVID-19 | First Job­Keep­er Deci­sion Clar­i­fies Annu­al Leave Request

In McCreedy v Vil­lage Road­show Theme Parks Pty Ltd [2020] FWC 2480, the Fair Work Com­mis­sion hand­ed down its first deci­sion deal­ing with a dis­pute aris­ing under the Job­Keep­er scheme.  The appli­cant, Ms McCreedy, had been employed by Vil­lage Road­show Theme Parks Pty Ltd (Vil­lage Road­show) on a part time basis, work­ing around 15 hours…

May 15, 2020

Stra­ta Schemes Gen­er­al Meet­ings in light of COVID-19

It has just been announced that the NSW Par­lia­ment is con­sid­er­ing reforms to the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (SSMA) to remove the need for face-to-face meet­ings and allow own­ers cor­po­ra­tions to oper­ate elec­tron­i­cal­ly. In the mean­time, own­ers cor­po­ra­tions are still required com­ply with their oblig­a­tions to hold meet­ings in…

May 15, 2020

Sep­a­ra­tion Post COVID 19 – Relo­ca­tion of chil­dren and the impor­tance of plan­ning now

Sep­a­ra­tion is tough! Espe­cial­ly when there are chil­dren involved but add a pan­dem­ic into the mix and it is next level. In these uncer­tain times it may feel as though you have lit­tle con­trol over your sep­a­ra­tion par­tic­u­lar­ly if you are want­i­ng to move with the chil­dren. With the COVID-19 restric­tions eas­ing…

May 14, 2020

Is your stra­ta scheme functioning?

We recent­ly act­ed for a lot owner/​building man­ag­er in a Stra­ta Appli­ca­tion to the NSW Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Tri­bunal (NCAT) suc­cess­ful­ly seek­ing orders for the removal of the exist­ing stra­ta com­mit­tee and the com­pul­so­ry appoint­ment of a stra­ta man­ag­er to the scheme under s237 of the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (SSMA 2015)…

May 13, 2020

COVID-19 | Con­struc­tion Works With­in Stra­ta Schemes

With the intro­duc­tion of the Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment (COVID-19 Devel­op­ment – Con­struc­tion Work Days) Order 2020 on 31 March 2020 (the Order), stra­ta schemes may be faced with deci­sions to make regard­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion or com­mence­ment of build­ing works dur­ing the Gov­ern­ment imposed restric­tions and social dis­tanc­ing guidelines.  Impact of…