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The Scab Sign Incident

In Brief On 7 Novem­ber 2012 Jus­tice Jes­sup of the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia gave his judg­ment in Con­struc­tion, Forestry, Min­ing and Ener­gy Union v BHP Coal Pty Ltd (No 3) [2012] FCA 1218. The case was a claim under the gen­er­al pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) and…

Fed­er­al Anti Dis­crim­i­na­tion Leg­is­la­tion Harmonised

In Brief The Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment recent­ly released an expo­sure draft of its pro­posed Human Rights and Anti-Dis­crim­i­na­tion Bill 2012 (the Bill). The Bill har­monis­es the cur­rent five pieces of Fed­er­al anti dis­crim­i­na­tion leg­is­la­tion: Racial Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act 1975 (Cth), Sex Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act 1984 (Cth), Dis­abil­i­ty Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act 1992 (Cth), Age Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act…

Impor­tant Changes to Employ­ment Law for 2013

Fair Work Changes Var­i­ous amend­ments made to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) came into force on 1 Jan­u­ary 2013. A sig­nif­i­cant change is to the time peri­ods with­in which dis­missal appli­ca­tions must be lodged with the renamed Fair Work Com­mis­sion (for­mer­ly Fair Work Aus­tralia): The time for lodg­ing an unfair dis­missal claim increas­es…

When is redun­dan­cy genuine?

In Brief Employ­ers who fail to observe the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) require­ments relat­ing to redun­dan­cies can find them­selves exposed to unfair dis­missal claims in cir­cum­stances in which they may have had good busi­ness rea­sons for termination. A recent deci­sion before Fair Work Aus­tralia (now Fair Work Com­mis­sion) high­lights…

Down, down, prices are down … or are they?

In Brief Retail­ers must not mis­lead cus­tomers about the amount of mon­ey they are sav­ing dur­ing adver­tised sale periods. ACCC v Jew­ellery Group Pty Lim­it­ed (No 2) [2013] FCA 14 Last month, the Fed­er­al Court found that Zamel’s Jew­ellers engaged in mis­lead­ing or decep­tive con­duct and made false or mis­lead­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tions by dis­trib­ut­ing…

When do I need a new will?

As a gen­er­al rule you should have your Will amend­ed (or get a new Will draft­ed if amend­ing isn’t pos­si­ble) when you expe­ri­ence a major change in your life or a sig­nif­i­cant event, for example: You plan to get mar­ried. Say­ing those mag­i­cal words ​“I do” may revoke your exist­ing Will. For peace of mind…

Con­struc­tion Indus­try Insolvency

In Brief In August 2012 the NSW Gov­ern­ment announced an Inquiry into Con­struc­tion Indus­try Insol­ven­cy in NSW. The Inquiry released its Dis­cus­sion and Issues Paper in Octo­ber 2012 which pro­pos­es a num­ber of poten­tial reme­di­al mea­sures for the industry. Con­struc­tion Indus­try Insol­ven­cy in NSW In August 2012 the NSW Gov­ern­ment announced an Inquiry into…

What not to say in the office

Why are there things I can and can­not say in the office? What is and what is not appro­pri­ate behav­iour in the work­place has tra­di­tion­al­ly been derid­ed as sim­ply a mat­ter of com­mon sense and ques­tioned on the basis: why would we seek to pre­scribe com­mon sense? In case you find your­self nod­ding…

Nation­al Trans­port & Logis­tics Reg­u­la­tion Becomes Real­i­ty. Is Your Sup­ply Chain Ready?

In Brief After years in the mak­ing, the estab­lish­ment in late Jan­u­ary of two new nation­al trans­port reg­u­la­tors rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal shift in land trans­port reg­u­la­tion in Aus­tralia and serves as an impor­tant reminder of the way that trans­port reg­u­la­tion impacts every­one who uses trans­port in their sup­ply chains, not only those…

Non Award Com­pli­ance Can Real­ly Cost Small Businesses

In Brief The Fed­er­al Mag­is­trates Court has issued a very clear warn­ing to small busi­ness­es to com­ply with the min­i­mum enti­tle­ments set by awards or risk get­ting severe­ly fined.Fair Work Ombuds­man v Tur­bo Café Water Gar­dens Pty Ltd & Anor [2012] FMCA 794 & Fair Work Ombuds­man v Tur­bo Café Point Cook Pty Ltd & Anor [2012]…

Employ­ment Law in Australia

Swaab employ­ment part­ner, Richard Ott­ley has been fea­tured on Cor​po​rate​liv​ewire​.com dis­cussing the legal com­pli­ance chal­lenges over­seas organ­i­sa­tions face when wish­ing to set up busi­ness­es in Aus­tralia. > Read the full article …

Employ­ee? Or not employ­ee? Why is it not clearer?

After 200 hun­dred years of legal deci­sions on the ques­tion of who is an employ­ee and who is a sub­con­trac­tor, the courts still sur­prise us. A recent Full Fed­er­al Court deci­sion on the issue pro­vid­ed a very adverse out­come for the hap­less employ­er. It involved 5 insur­ance sales rep­re­sen­ta­tives oper­at­ing in 3 dif­fer­ent roles for an…

Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment incen­tivis­es for­eign invest­ment in Australia

Late last year the Gov­ern­ment intro­duced two new class­es of visa designed to incen­tivise for­eign invest­ment in Aus­tralia. High net worth indi­vid­u­als who intend to invest, or have invest­ed, at least A$5 mil­lion in cer­tain class­es of assets can now apply for pro­vi­sion­al and per­ma­nent visas in Aus­tralia. There are…

Rais­ing the bar — trade mark oppo­si­tion peri­ods change

In Brief Changes to Aus­trali­a’s intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty régime will come into full effect on 15 April 2013. These changes affect many of the process­es and pro­ce­dures for patent, design and trade mark protection. For trade mark own­ers, this will mean that the peri­od with­in which a third par­ty can oppose an accept­ed…

Employ­ee or Contractor?

In Brief A recent deci­sion of the Full Court of the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia takes us fur­ther in the murky world of law con­cern­ing whether an indi­vid­ual is an employ­ee or a con­trac­tor. This arti­cle explores the mes­sages to be learnt from this case if you want to ensure that a rela­tion­ship is…