A wholesale floristry company has successfully defended the unfair dismissal application of a former supervisor. The Fair Work Commission heard that in March 2017, the Supervisor was involved in two incidents, six days apart. In the first incident, two employees advised the Employer of an incident where the Supervisor had “unzipped his pants, removed his […]
On 4 September 2017, the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017, passed through the Senate, and after approval of its amendments by the House of Representatives, is now awaiting Royal Assent. Upon receiving Royal Assent, most of the changes contained in the Bill will immediately become active provisions of the Fair Work Act […]
The Supreme Court of Victoria has granted an injunction to an IT company (‘the Applicant’) that commenced an interlocutory application to have an employee (‘the Employee’) restrained from working for a competitor for four years. Prior to June 2016, the Employee had a company which owned 40% of the shares in the Applicant’s company. The […]
This particular case involved an employee who was required to have an extended unpaid absence from her employment as a cleaner following complicated surgery to her ankle. About four months after the surgery, a representative of the employer had a discussion with the Applicant about her medical condition and her prospects of a return to […]
A real estate agency in Victoria will wait until a further hearing in October to find out Judge Riley’s decision as to compensation, after it unsuccessfully defended proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court brought by a former administrative assistant (‘Applicant’). The Applicant alleged that she had been terminated by the real estate agency due to […]
The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has released its decision on the transitional arrangements that are to apply to the phasing in of the new penalty rates arising from its decision on 23 February 2017. Affected employers will recall that in that February decision, the Full Bench determined to impose the following changes […]
The Fair Work Commission has ordered near maximum compensation of close to $30,000 to the former director of an early childhood centre. This followed a finding that the employer had effectively created a reason for the centre director’s termination after terminating her employment. Disturbing factual background to the dismissal The employer operated a number of […]
In a decision delivered on 28 April 2017, Judge O’Sullivan of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia found that an accountancy firm was accessorily liable for its client’s underpayment of employee wages. In this case, the first respondent was a Japanese fast food restaurant (‘first respondent’). The first respondent engaged the accountancy firm (‘the firm’) […]
The Federal Circuit Court has given some very clear guidance to employers around the steps they must take to determine appropriate award coverage for a particular business or position. This guidance comes from a very interesting case, where a religious organisation formally contested a compliance notice delivered to it by the Fair Work Ombudsman. This […]
The FWO has had its first compliance notice judicially challenged, in a recent case in the Federal Circuit Court. The FWO’s compliance notice required a religious body to back pay an employee nearly $78,000 after the FWO determined that the employee was a cook as opposed to an assistant priest, and as such covered by […]