Search

Sell­ing a prop­er­ty with a pool? Dive right into compliance

In Brief Just because sum­mer has come to an end doesn’t mean it’s time to for­get about your swim­ming pool for the year. As at 29 April 2014 all prop­er­ties list­ed for sale or for lease with a swim­ming pool (includ­ing stra­ta prop­er­ties if there is a pool in the com­mon prop­er­ty) must…

Can a Change in Required Skills and Com­pe­ten­cies Make an Exis­tent Role Redundant?

IN BRIEF The Full Bench of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion has recent­ly con­clud­ed that where an employ­er wants to increase the skill lev­el of a par­tic­u­lar role for oper­a­tional based rea­sons, it may do so by mak­ing the exist­ing posi­tion redun­dant and replac­ing it with a new posi­tion that meets the busi­ness­es oper­a­tional…

Strange Bed­fel­lows — Min­imis­ing risks in Post Merg­er Integration

In Brief Recent stud­ies have shown that close to 50% of post merg­er inte­gra­tions fare poor­ly. While there are no hard and fast rules that will guar­an­tee a suc­cess­ful merg­er, in this arti­cle we look at the risks involved and some of the ways to min­imise those risks and ensure a greater like­li­hood…

What is the role of the sup­port per­son in a dis­ci­pli­nary meeting?

Employ­ers usu­al­ly know that they have to allow an employ­ee to have a sup­port per­son accom­pa­ny them whilst they are being coun­selled. How­ev­er, what is less clear is the role of that sup­port per­son in the meeting. Last week, the Full Bench hand­ed down a deci­sion that clar­i­fied what the role of the…

How to avoid pay­ing for employ­ee non-work relat­ed injuries

In Brief Employ­ers are increas­ing­ly becom­ing aware that allow­ing an employ­ee to return to work after suf­fer­ing an injury, espe­cial­ly a non-work relat­ed one, can be risky busi­ness. If an employ­ee returns to work before they are fit to do so and con­se­quent­ly aggra­vates his or her con­di­tion, the employ­er may find…

e‑Conveyancing — The ​“e” stands for ​“excit­ing”!

In Brief Any­one who has dis­cov­ered the highs and lows of deal­ing with exchange and set­tle­ment in rela­tion to real prop­er­ty knows how del­i­cate and unre­li­able the process can be. Enter e‑conveyancing. Wendy Con­ce­icao, Asso­ciate and man­ag­er of our Con­veyanc­ing port­fo­lio, and Euge Pow­er, solic­i­tor, look at the reli­a­bil­i­ty and oth­er…

Ger­many bans employ­ers from con­tact­ing employ­ees out­side of work hours

In Brief It has been report­ed that in July 2013, Ger­man born Chief Exec­u­tive of Swiss­com, Carsten Schlot­er, sad­ly com­mit­ted sui­cide just weeks after pro­vid­ing a can­did inter­view to the Swiss media which pro­vid­ed an insight into the increased pres­sures and stress he felt caused by mod­ern com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems. In one media…

Swim­ming pool com­pli­ance leg­is­la­tion delay: A sen­si­ble outcome 

In Brief Leg­isla­tive changes were to come into effect from 29 April 2014 requir­ing swim­ming pool com­pli­ance cer­tifi­cates to be annexed to con­tracts for the sale or lease of land. The Office of Local Gov­ern­ment announced on 28 March 2014 that the imple­men­ta­tion of these changes would be post­poned for a fur­ther 1…

Union Vis­its — How does one lim­it unin­vit­ed guests?

In Brief Union vis­its and the asso­ci­at­ed ten­sion between employ­ers and union offi­cials can be dis­rup­tive and stress­ful for both par­ties. The Fair Work Com­mis­sion has pro­vid­ed rec­om­men­da­tions to clar­i­fy rights of entry vis­its which will be tri­alled for a peri­od of three month. This arti­cle high­lights the rec­om­men­da­tions in more detail…

Pro­posed new rules for pay­ing dividends

In Brief If passed in Par­lia­ment, the Cor­po­ra­tions Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Dereg­u­la­to­ry and Oth­er Mea­sures) Bill 2014 may sim­pli­fy the process of declar­ing and pay­ing div­i­dends and reduce com­pli­ance costs for SME busi­ness­es. In this arti­cle we take a look at the cur­rent and pro­posed new rules for pay­ing dividends. Introduction If passed in…

Award Wage Increase — What do I do?

In Brief With the new tax year upon us, for many busi­ness­es, work­ers com­pen­sa­tion pol­i­cy peri­ods turn-over and bud­gets are being finalised. Amongst all this activ­i­ty, the increase in award wages and the nation­al min­i­mum wage, can be missed, which can cause headaches for many busi­ness­es. This arti­cle high­lights what busi­ness­es…

Extend­ing a con­ven­ing peri­od before it expires — rel­e­vant principles

In Brief The admin­is­tra­tor of a com­pa­ny under admin­is­tra­tion must con­vene a meet­ing of the com­pa­ny’s cred­i­tors with­in the con­ven­ing peri­od set out in sec­tion 439A(5) of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Cth) or as extend­ed by the Court under sec­tion 439A(6). The courts have shown a will­ing­ness to extend the con­ven­ing peri­od pro­vid­ed there…

Prac­tice note: Approval of pro­vi­sion­al liq­uida­tor’s remuneration

In Brief In the Mat­ter of CB Con­struc­tions (NSW) Pty Ltd [2014] NSWSC 913 is a recent deci­sion of Jus­tice Black which pro­vides a time­ly reminder of the mat­ters which need to be addressed when seek­ing court approval for the remu­ner­a­tion of a pro­vi­sion­al liq­uida­tor under sec­tion 473(2) of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Cth)…

Unfair dis­missal and the high income threshold

In Brief In this arti­cle our employ­ment team pro­vides details on the high income thresh­old that increased from 1 July this year. The increase high­lights the impor­tance of close­ly review­ing and assess­ing what the employ­ee’s actu­al earn­ings are when faced with a claim for unfair dismissal. The oppor­tu­ni­ty for a ter­mi­nat­ed employ­ee to make an…

NABERS Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion: Don’t get caught on the wrong side of the fence 

In Brief With the com­mer­cial prop­er­ty mar­ket heat­ing up, if you are a ven­dor or a lessor you should ensure that your build­ing has appro­pri­ate NABERS cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in place. The Com­mer­cial Build­ing Dis­clo­sure (CBD) Pro­gram requires ven­dors and land­lords of dis­clo­sure-affect­ed build­ings to obtain a Build­ing Ener­gy Effi­cien­cy Cer­tifi­cate (BEEC), before the build­ing goes…