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Mer­i­tas Week 2020 | Young Lawyer Advi­so­ry Board – Well­be­ing webi­nar for Mer­i­tas firms

In this ses­sion Mer­i­tas par­tic­i­pants will hear advice from senior lawyers from three dif­fer­ent coun­tries on how they han­dled com­pet­ing inter­ests ear­ly in their careers. They will also hear from an exec­u­tive coach that reg­u­lar­ly coach­es lawyers and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als on such issues. There will also be an oppor­tu­ni­ty to…

Mary Digiglio is speak­ing at the vir­tu­al #ACCAM20, the world’s largest gath­er­ing of in-house counsel.

Mary Digiglio, Man­ag­ing Part­ner Swaab along with David Field, Chief Legal Coun­sel Canon Ocea­nia and Greg de Moore, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try West­mead Hos­pi­tal are excit­ed to be pre­sent­ing on fos­ter­ing #well­ness in a law depart­ment envi­ron­ment at #ACCAM20 the world’s largest gath­er­ing of in-house coun­sel. On Wednes­day, Octo­ber 14, 4.30pm…

Swaab Con­nect | Sep­tem­ber 2020

In this issue Part­ner Michael Byrnes dis­cuss­es a recent deci­sion from the Fed­er­al Court which has, for the first time, held that employ­ees have a work­place right to use the toi­let and drink water while at work. Part­ner Eric Ziehlke out­lines how to avoid being exposed to copy­right infringe­ment and Helen Kow­al…

Michael Byrnes fea­tured on 2GB — 13 Octo­ber 2020

Michael Byrnes dis­cuss­es the some­times vexed issue of what con­sti­tutes a ​“work­place rela­tion­ship” with John Stan­ley on 2GB, 2CC and 4BC on 13 Octo­ber 2020 (from 1:26:10).Click here to lis­ten to the podcast.…

“Rea­son­able Notice” – Sounds innocu­ous but can be expensive

It is a trite propo­si­tion that employ­ment con­tracts are impor­tant. One key ben­e­fit of hav­ing an applic­a­ble employ­ment con­tract in place gov­ern­ing an employ­ment rela­tion­ship is that the notice an employ­er is required to give to the employ­ee to ter­mi­nate employ­ment is, sub­ject to the min­i­mum leg­isla­tive require­ments in the Fair…

The Anti-Bul­ly­ing Injunc­tion Curtailed

The Fair Work Com­mis­sion Anti-Bul­ly­ing ​‘Injunc­tion’ In the 2017 anti-bul­ly­ing case, Lynette Bay­ly [2017] FWC 1886 (Bay­ly), the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) issued an inter­im order which pre­vent­ed the employ­er from tak­ing fur­ther steps to finalise an inves­ti­ga­tion into the con­duct of the employ­ee, impose any dis­ci­pli­nary sanc­tion on the…

Pacif­ic Springs Pty Lim­it­ed [2020] NSWSC 1240

Marc Bad­dams — Part­ner, Sean Green­wood — Senior Asso­ciate and Esther Khoo — Asso­ciate recent­ly act­ed for Pacif­ic Springs Pty Lim­it­ed and its direc­tor in Supreme Court of New South Wales pro­ceed­ings were they suc­cess­ful­ly defend­ed an appli­ca­tion under s 175 of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act to cor­rect the com­pa­ny’s share register. You can…

ACN 057 690 034 Pty Lim­it­ed v Wykro­ta [2020] NSWSC 1430

Marc Bad­dams — Part­ner and Sean Green­wood — Senior Asso­ciate recent­ly act­ed for ACN 057 690 034 Pty Lim­it­ed suc­cess­ful­ly resist­ing an appli­ca­tion to set aside a judg­ment alleged to have been made irreg­u­lar­ly, against good faith or in the absence of the sub­ject defendant. You can read the deci­sion here, full arti­cle…

AFL: Assump­tion Fail Legal­i­ties – A Dis­crim­i­na­tion Dan­ger for Employers

It has recent­ly been report­ed that a Vic­to­ria-based AFL play­er, whose pro­fes­sion­al net­baller wife will be play­ing for a Queens­land club in 2021 (and relo­cat­ing to that state with the cou­ple’s very young child to do so), has been told by the AFL club for which he plays that he should leave…

Michael Byrnes fea­tured in HRM Online — 4 Novem­ber 2020

Would you like a class action with that? McDonald’s fran­chisees in hot water after alle­ga­tions employ­ees were denied the 10-minute paid breaks they’re enti­tled to. Read the full arti­cle here.…

Hol­i­day Office Clo­sure 2020

If you need to speak with one of our lawyers, please call +61 2 9233 5544. We wish you a hap­py hol­i­days and a pros­per­ous new year!…

Alum­ni & friends

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‘Tis the Sea­son to Avoid Fol­ly: Work­place Christ­mas Par­ties (Covid-19 Edition)

It’s that time of year. The​‘Sil­ly Sea­son’. For many organ­i­sa­tions, the offi­cial employ­er Christ­mas par­ty is immi­nent. But this year, 2020, it’s with a dif­fer­ence. Employ­er Christ­mas par­ties will be held against the back­drop of the glob­al Covid-19 pandemic. The start­ing point for such par­ties is that they are an exten­sion of…

Michael Byrnes fea­tured in Lawyers Week­ly | Work­place rela­tion­ships are back on the agen­da | 16 Novem­ber 2020

In the new nor­mal, employ­ers must ensure their fun­da­men­tal WHS oblig­a­tions are in line with evolv­ing work­place envi­ron­ments and employ­ee inter­ac­tions. Employ­ment Part­ner, Michael Byrnes dis­cuss­es ​‘Work­place rela­tion­ships are back on the agen­da’ with Jerome Doraisamy. Read the full arti­cle here…

Michael Byrnes fea­tured in HRM Online | Manager/​subordinate romances: what HR needs to know | 16 Novem­ber 2020

Inter-work­place rela­tion­ships are a com­mon occur­rence, but how should HR react if a romance forms between a team leader and their junior? Read full arti­cle here.…