Pub­li­ca­tions

Feb 12, 2024

The Right to Dis­con­nect: What is it? What does it mean for workplaces?

One of the most talked about and debat­ed work­place reforms of recent times is the ​‘right to dis­con­nect’. This right was one of the work­place rela­tions reforms includ­ed in the Clos­ing Loop­holes Bill No. 2 (Bill), passed by the fed­er­al par­lia­ment last week. Laws con­fer­ring a right to dis­con­nect have been imple­ment­ed…

Feb 8, 2024

Valen­tine’s Day in the Work­place (2024 Edition)

Valen­tine’s Day, the cel­e­bra­tion of romance and roman­tic love, takes place annu­al­ly on Feb­ru­ary 14. While many assid­u­ous­ly avoid what they con­sid­er to be a crass com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of inti­mate rela­tion­ships, oth­ers embrace with rel­ish the oppor­tu­ni­ties it presents to either affirm or pur­sue romance, A few years ago exten­sive media cov­er­age (usu­al­ly with…

Jan 31, 2024

Lat­touf v ABC: The Cur­rent State of Play

Back­ground Just like the Israel Folau case, the pro­ceed­ings com­menced by jour­nal­ist, host and author Antoinette Lat­touf against the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (ABC) have gar­nered sig­nif­i­cant media atten­tion and again shone the spot­light on the issues aris­ing from the use of social media by employees.  The appli­ca­tions and the respons­es filed…

Jan 15, 2024

Aus­tralia Day Sub­sti­tu­tion: The Legal Issues (2024 Edition)

In recent years it has been report­ed that some of the largest employ­ers in Aus­tralia, includ­ing Wool­worths, Tel­stra and Net­work 10, are now giv­ing employ­ees the option of work­ing on Aus­tralia Day (Jan­u­ary 26) and tak­ing that pub­lic hol­i­day at anoth­er time. This devel­op­ment has arisen from both a gen­er­al trend towards…

Nov 13, 2023

‘Tis the Sea­son to Avoid Fol­ly: Work­place Christ­mas Par­ties (2023 Edition)

It’s that time of year. The ​‘Sil­ly Sea­son’. For many organ­i­sa­tions, the offi­cial employ­er Christ­mas par­ty is imminent. The start­ing point for office Christ­mas par­ties is that they are an exten­sion of the work­place — employ­ers need to care­ful­ly bal­ance hold­ing and facil­i­tat­ing a fun event with main­tain­ing a safe, respect­ful envi­ron­ment for employees. …

Sep 6, 2023

Clos­ing Loop­holes or Rad­i­cal Change? The Fair Work Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Clos­ing Loop­holes) Bill 2023

Ear­li­er this week, the Albanese Gov­ern­ment intro­duced the ​‘Fair Work Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Clos­ing Loop­holes) Bill 2023’ (Bill), which con­tains a num­ber of sig­nif­i­cant reforms to the work­place rela­tions land­scape. If ful­ly imple­ment­ed in its cur­rent form, the Bill will lead to a num­ber of impli­ca­tions in the way busi­ness­es and work­ers engage…

Jul 17, 2023

Non-Dis­par­age­ment Claus­es v Free Speech

The recent high-pro­file deci­sion of the Supreme Court of NSW in Net­work Ten Pty Lim­it­ed v van Onse­len [2023] NSWSC 829 pro­vides a rare insight into the scope and prac­ti­cal effect of non-dis­par­age­ment claus­es in deeds of release for employ­ment mat­ters. These claus­es are almost always includ­ed in such deeds, usu­al­ly in…

Jun 30, 2023

Impor­tant Work­place Rela­tions Changes Effec­tive 1 July 2023

Employ­ers and employ­ees alike need to be aware of impor­tant changes in the work­place rela­tions space, effec­tive 1 July 2023. From that date: the high income thresh­old for unfair dis­missal cas­es will increase to $167,500 per annum (from the present $162,000 per annum) and the com­pen­sa­tion lim­it will be $83,750 (equiv­a­lent to…

May 15, 2023

Employ­ees & the Employ­er Posi­tion on the Voice in Parliament

Many sig­nif­i­cant organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing large employ­ers, have adopt­ed a cor­po­rate posi­tion on the Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Voice Ref­er­en­dum (Voice). It seems the vast major­i­ty of organ­i­sa­tions that have declared a posi­tion are in favour of the Voice, most recent­ly the Aus­tralian Olympic Com­mit­tee (AOC) Exec­u­tive and AOC Ath­letes’ Com­mis­sion, and…

Apr 19, 2023

Clos­ing The Gen­der Pay Gap

In 2021 the Work­place Gen­der Equal­i­ty Agency (Agency) con­duct­ed a review (Review) of the Work­place Gen­der Equal­i­ty Act 2012 (Act). The report result­ing from the Review was released in March 2022 and con­tained sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions with the objec­tive of reduc­ing the gen­der pay gap. The data from 2021 and 2022 showed…