Employment Relations Podcast – Safety in the workplace: drug and alcohol testing and policies
Employment Law for the Time Poor
January is a time where organisations often review their policies and procedures for best practice compliance. One policy that might need a review, following recent case law developments, is your organisation’s drug and alcohol policy. In this episode of Employment Law for the Time Poor, Emily Haar, Partner, and Maida Mujkic, Associate, consider the implications for organisations arising from a string of 2024 and 2025 decisions in the Fair Work Commission. In these cases, the issue of whether a dismissal following a positive substance test was “unfair” turned on how...
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Employment Relations Podcast: When is the deal done? Resolving employment disputes
Employment Law for the Time Poor
Authors: Emily Haar, Ben Motro Has this happened to your organisation? You’re negotiating an exit with an employee, or perhaps you are working through a conciliation or mediation following the filing of an employment-related claim, and you think you have a resolution, though nothing has been signed yet. You might wonder, do we have a binding or enforceable settlement, even without anything signed? In this episode of Employment Law for the Time Poor, Ben Motro and Emily Haar push past some of the legalese to work through when a settlement agreement is binding, how particular Court and...
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Understanding the Employment Law Considerations in Defence Export Controls
Employment Law for the Time Poor
Employment Relations Podcast #41 – Understanding the Employment Law Considerations in Defence Export Controls Authors: Emily Haar, Erin McCarthy, Travis Shueard In this episode, we delve into the recent amendments to the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012 (Cth) and explore the implications for employment law and anti-discrimination issues. Emily Haar is joined by Erin McCarthy and Travis Shueard to discuss how these legislative changes impact businesses in the defence industry – which is defined more widely than you may initially think! The legislative grace period before penalties...
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Understanding the Australian Right to Disconnect
Employment Law for the Time Poor
Employment Relations Podcast – Understanding the Australian Right to Disconnect Authors: Emily Haar, Lucie Lawrence-Wall The “right to disconnect” is commencing for most national systems employers on 26 August 2024 (small businesses have a further 12 months to get ready). Does your organisation understand what this “right” actually is, and how it could impact your operations? In this episode of Piper Alderman’s Employment Law for the Time Poor Podcast, Partner Emily Haar and Senior Associate Lucie Lawrence-Wall discuss the international position and the “availability...
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Restraints on restraints! What the United States’ ban on non-compete clauses could mean for Australian businesses
Employment Law for the Time Poor
The United States is planning to heavily restrict the use of non-compete clauses in employment contracts, and the Australian Government has released an issues paper discussing the subject in the Australian context. In this episode of Employment Law for the Time Poor, Emily Haar, Prof. Andrew Stewart and Dustin Grant discuss the current state of the law on post-employment restraints, what proposals for limitations on such restraints could look like, and what employers can do now to best protect their interests. . In April 2024, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to ban non-compete...
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Wage Theft: Go Directly to Jail?
Employment Law for the Time Poor
One of the few constants in life and business is change. Come 1 January 2025, a significant shift will take place for national system employers when criminal wage theft provisions come into effect because of changes in the Closing Loopholes Reforms. But what does “wage theft” mean, and in what circumstances will criminal prosecution occur? In this episode of Piper Alderman’s Employment Law for the Time Poor Podcast, Partners Emily Haar, Principal Chris Hartigan, and Senior Associate Jack Bourke discuss: The differences between civil underpayments and criminal wage theft; ...
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What does a psychosocially safe workplace look like?
Employment Law for the Time Poor
Following the 2018 Boland Review into the model Work Health and Safety provisions, workplace psychosocial safety has squarely been on the policy agenda. Combined with recent changes as a result of the Respect@Work Report, the clear policy position, and expectation of society, is one of employers taking responsibility and being accountable for having workplaces that are both physically and psychologically safe. In South Australia, its version of amendments to the Work Health and Safety regulations to deal with psychosocial safety commence on 25 December 2023, following similar...
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The Governance of Decision Making in the Post-Qantas Environment
Employment Law for the Time Poor
The recent High Court decision in Qantas v TWU focussed on the question of how the general protections in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) work in circumstances where employees did not presently have particular workplace rights (in that case the right to take industrial action), but would have those rights in the future if not for the adverse action being taken. While that analysis has rightly been the subject of a lot of interest, the outcome in that case turned on the other key concept in general protections claims – the “reverse onus” where employers need to prove that an unlawful...
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National WHS Update: Industrial Manslaughter Laws and the Prohibition of Insurance
Employment Law for the Time Poor
Industrial manslaughter may soon be an offence in almost all Australian jurisdictions. Recent amendments in certain jurisdictions have also introduced the recommendation of the 2019 Boland Review to prohibit insurance and indemnities for WHS penalties. In this episode of Employment Law for the Time Poor, join Emily Haar, Partner, and Joseph Hyde, Associate, for a review of the current status of these provisions, with a particular focus on the South Australian proposed industrial manslaughter legislation. With Labor governments having been recently elected in South Australia, New...
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Consultation: Who, What, Where, and How?
Employment Law for the Time Poor
Organisations have legal obligations to consult with their staff in particular situations. But what does that actually mean? In this episode of Employment Law for the Time Poor, join Emily Haar, Partner and Emily Slaytor, Special Counsel in a discussion around the requirements to consult flowing from work health and safety legislation, Awards and Enterprise Agreements. They discuss how various consultation obligations differ, what the Courts and the Fair Work Commission say is required to comply, and what is not consultation.
info_outlineOne of the few constants in life and business is change. Come 1 January 2025, a significant shift will take place for national system employers when criminal wage theft provisions come into effect because of changes in the Closing Loopholes Reforms. But what does “wage theft” mean, and in what circumstances will criminal prosecution occur?
In this episode of Piper Alderman’s Employment Law for the Time Poor Podcast, Partners Emily Haar, Principal Chris Hartigan, and Senior Associate Jack Bourke discuss:
- The differences between civil underpayments and criminal wage theft;
- How the new regulatory model closely resembles the approach of the model work health and safety legislative provisions, requiring a more proactive response from organisations;
- When an underpayment is “intentional”;
- New ways to engage with regulators;
- Significant increases to civil penalties, and expansion of serious civil contraventions to include “reckless” conduct; and
- Wage compliance as a governance issue.
For even more practical insights, on 20 February 2024, our Adelaide team presented on “wage theft” and civil underpayments. Register to view a recording of the webinar here: https://piperalderman.com.au/event/webinar-beat-the-clock-2024-substantive-law-underpayment-or-wage-theft-understanding-compliance-with-the-fair-work-act-criminalisation-and-the-proposed-safe-harbour-provision/