Search

  - All Sections -Content Search Advanced Search

1. Unfair dismissal case raises questions about what a casual w

The latest case on the meaning of a 'casual employee' for the purposes of the unfair dismissal regime is likely to lead to more rather than less confusion over this important issue. In the case of Ponce v DJT Management, DJT Management claimed that Fair Work Australia (FWA) had no jurisdiction to hear Ponce's unfair dismissal claim as he was a casual employee. Under the Fair Work Act 2009, a casual employee does not have unfair dismissal rights unless:(a) the employee has ...

2. Employers must wake up on social media in work hours

At a conference in Queensland a week ago when I spent half an hour chatting to the general manager of a financial services business she raised two concerns. First was the use of the company's IT infrastructure by employees for social media and she explained that in her business they had put various blocks on social media to prevent employees f...

3. What can I do about the office kitchen pigs?

Dear Aunty B, I am on the verge of burning our kitchen to the ground. It is an absolute pigsty of dirty dishes, crusty breakfast plates and smeary cutlery. I only occasionally wander in to get a cup of tea and can never even find a clean cup! We have tried everything. Rosters, warnings, threats, and nothing works....

4. Dealing with a sick employee

  Employers can require employees to provide medical certificates for sick leave absences which explain more than just that the employee has a "medical condition". Many employers would have had the experience of employees presenting medical certificates to cover absences from work which have little or no detail about what, ...

5. New Year’s new laws for employers

Every New Year brings its own challenges for small and medium sized employers.  One of those challenges is the prospect of more new laws, and the compliance obligations that follow from them.  Here are a selection of legal changes in store for 2011 – keep on top of them and stay out of trouble. Small business unfair dismissal Remember how the unfair dismissal provisions of ...

6. Watch for workplace bullies

A new Federal Court case confirms that bosses who turn a blind eye to mistreatment of employees are making a very expensive mistake. But what exactly is bullying? PETER VITALE explains.     Bullying can take many forms, from spreading rumours to physical violence. Employers should have procedures to deal with claims of grievances, and for disciplining employees found guilty of bullying.   By Peter Vitale  

7. Construction group Candetti Constructions placed in administ

South Australian construction firm Candetti Constructions has been placed in administration as the industry continues to suffer a downturn, with building approval figures remaining low and lengthy approval processes keeping new business grounded. The collapse comes as the company had just competed the new State Aquatic Centre in Mario, for which it is owed about $30 million. According to administrators Stephen Duncan and Chris Powell of Korda Mentha, a creditors' meeting is schedu...

8. How harmonious is the Model Act?

Harmonisation has a benign sound. However, the reality is something entirely different. The Model Act, if not amended will become law in December 2011. The Model Act includes: broadening the obligation from employers to any person (can be more than one person as there will be concurrent liability) who conducts a busine...

9. Draft OHS legislation opens business up to legal action, law

The Government's draft of the new universal occupational health and safety laws contains loopholes that could open up businesses to civil litigation claims, an industry expert has warned.   Deacons' partner Michael Tooma, who focuses on OHS matters, says the new laws do not reflect many of the recommendations made to the Government during the submissions process. "If this draft became law as it is now, there would be some significant problems. The potential broad applicati...

10. Serhat Oguz

When accountant-turned-CEO Serhat Oguz was appointed to the top job at OHS services company Konekt in June he found a company in a mess, with a share price languishing at just 3c and losses running at $7 million a year. Today, things are looking up. The company turned its maiden profit in 2008-09 and recently upgraded its earnings outlook for 2009-10, with a forecast of EBIT of $2.4-2.6 million. Revenu...

11. Masterchef producer denies OHS problems with wet floor in wa

The third season of hit reality television show Masterchef is rating strongly again, but this year the talk isn’t just about ingredients, cooking techniques and the chances of various contestants. Remarkably, occupational health and safety concerns have also generated a lot of discussion, with viewers questioning whether the large amounts of water visible on the floor of the show’s set represents a hazard for the contestants.

12. The real cost of workplace bullying

In the last three weeks I have read headlines both overseas and in Australia about the sad death of teenage children as a result of cyber bullying. When I was in the US, page 21 of the New York Times on January 4, 2012 was dedicated to the death of Amanda Cummins. Amanda was a 15-year-old girl wh...

13. Australia's top 30 female entrepreneurs 2013

Meet Australia’s top female entrepreneurs, they are smart, focused and risk takers. Many have built their businesses from scratch and together they generated $6.452 billion in revenue last year. There are some names you will recognise on this list like Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman, but others you might not, like Vi...

14. OHS harmonsation: the big nine changes

The first draft of regulations (with some omissions and half of the Codes of Practice to sit beneath the regulations) have now been released for the Model Harmonised OHS Act. The purpose for releasing the regulations now is for public comment in the hope that it will iron out any problems before it becomes law. The new regu...

15. Safety training for workers

Three questions should always be asked in OHS. First, who gets injured? Second, who can prevent that injury? Finally, who will be prosecuted? The answer to the first question is always the worker. It is the worker's life or quality of life that is endangered at work. So should the answer to question two be the worker? Yes and...

16. Working from home: The OHS trap for employers

Technological advances, avoiding the commute, a break from office dramas and tedium: it's no surprise more workers are asking to work from home. For businesses trying to be an employer of choice and keen to retain key employees, particularly senior women, flexible working arrangements can deliver a competitive ad...

17. The Aussie version of Good Faith Bargaining

The Fair Work sceptics warned of Australia developing good faith bargaining laws akin to the US. They warned that it would be a complex process where employers could no longer speak to their employees during the negotiation of an enterprise agreement. They were heartened by the early discussion of SDP Drake in AFMEPKIU v ...

18. Bullying can be financially painful

Bullying is on the rise and employers who turn a blind eye to bullying risk fines, higher WorkCover claims, lower productivity and higher absenteeism. By PETER VITALE. By Peter Vitale of VECCI   Last week a victim of a schoolyard bully i...

19. HR hell: The general protections nightmare

At a recent training event, a senior HR manager said to me, "I'm trying to manage this difficult, sometimes ill, often absent and prickly staff member – what can I do?" When I enquired about the performance and behavioural issues that concerned the HR manager, and what the desired outcome was, they stated:  we have h...

20. Work from home OH&S fix needed

If your employee was working from home and injured themselves on their home office chair, would you as an employer be liable for compensation? If your employee was working from home and slipped on the bathroom tiles during a toilet break, would you be liable for compensation? If your employee was reading a work email as they got off the train and stumbled and injured themselves, would you be liable for compensation? These are the sort of questions raised by

21. Abandoning the adverse action

Many businesses struggle with what is unfair, unlawful, constructive and summary dismissal. The one common thread is that it is termination or deemed termination by the employer. Termination or deemed termination by the employer, in some circumstances, may also be considered an adverse action against an employee. Howev...

22. Here comes 2012 – the big regulatory changes you need to b

A new year is often accompanied by new regulations. In 2012 there’s plenty for business to be across, from industrial relations to health and safety, tax and super to consumer law. Here is SmartCompany’s guide to what’s changing in 2012 and what experts tip for the key areas of work health and safety, industrial relations, franchising, tax and super, and consumer law. There’s a lot to prepare for. Will your busi...

23. Unions can’t dictate meeting place

Many employers don’t fully understand the rights of union representatives under the Fair Work Act to enter their workplace and speak to employees.  One of the most common disputes in relation to unions exercising those rights is that the employer has not allowed the union to meet employees in a suitable location. Two...

24. Learning to see the real value of OHS

There is a very simply reason why OHS experts have become such key members of a company's advisory and risk management network – these are people who indentify huge risk and then find simple ways to solve them. This was rammed home to me last week, when my firm was one of the sponsors of the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA...

25. Company directors face excessive personal liability burden i

A new report from the Australian Institute of Company Directors has found most Australian states have failed to reduce the personal liability burden faced by directors and has warned that businesses could start to flee poor-performing states such as Queensland and New South Wales. The AICD's Boardroom Burden Report Card, which is based on research by law firm Minter Ellison, seeks to rank the burden place on directors in each state and territories by personal liability laws in areas such ...

26. The cost of bullying

On February 9, 2010 a Victorian Magistrate handed down fines totaling $330,000 for workplace bullying. The employer was fined $250,000. The employees who subjected their co-worker to bullying were fined between $4,000-$10,000. This is the first major decision in Australia in setting a benchmark for prosecutions in the future. What is bul...

27. Gillard slams NSW for backing out of national OHS agreement

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she will hold the NSW Government accountable over its shock decision to back out of an agreement to put in place a new national occupational health and safety framework. NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has written to Gillard to demand that the state is able to retain to controversial features of its current state OHS laws – the right to prosecute employers for work safety breaches and employers carrying the onus of proof to show they exercised due care wh...

28. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork – the OH&S nightmare

Most businesses find OH&S a great cost and irritation, but good companies save time and money by making OH&S a part of the operational decision making process. By ANDREW DOUGLAS By Andrew Douglas   Most busin...

29. Tough but fair

Employers, employees and unions must negotiate an enterprise agreement (EA) in good faith. In past articles, I have suggested that the US position - that any direct communications with your workers when there is a bargaining representative for the workers is unlawful – will not be followed in Australia. Why?1. Our legislation is different;

30. The last word on contractor clauses in Enterprise Agreements

The Full Bench of Fair Work Australia (FWA) has spoken. Any clause proposed by a union in an enterprise agreement which requires that an employer only engage contractors with a union enterprise agreement or otherwise restricts the use of contractors beyond equivalence in employee pay is illegal. Airport Fuel Services Pty Ltd...

31. Working from home: The OHS trap for employers

This article first appeared October 27, 2011. Technological advances, avoiding the commute, a break from office dramas and tedium: it's no surprise more workers are asking to work from home. For businesses trying to be an employer of choice and keen to retain key emplo...

32. Masterchef: Don't try this at home

Australian television watchers have been captured by the Masterchef series where cooking is carried out in a number of exotic locations such as warehouses with floors covered with puddles of water, uneven wooden planks which have caused people to trip and time pressures creating dangerous circumstances with knives and hot oils ...

33. Controlling worker's behaviour outside work – yes we can!

In the 20 years that I have practiced, there has been consistent case law precluding disciplinary action against a worker for out-of-work-behaviour. But now the world has changed. The recent case of Kolodjashnij v Boags cements the change in limited circumstances. The facts in Boags are simple. Boags had ...

34. SMEs warned to focus on safety after worker awarded $1.26 mi

The awarding of $1.26 million to a former employee of a company owned by pollster Gary Morgan who suffered a serious injury to his foot should serve as a warning to SMEs to make occupational health and safety a key part of their culture, an expert has warned. The Supreme Court of Victoria found Linton Shirreff, who was employed by Elazac to supervise the refurbishment of a building in the Melbourne CBD, is now owed $1.26 million after he sustained a serious foot injury in an elevator sh...

35. The business case for embracing age diversity

As the baby boomers retire there is going to be a significant slow down in labour force growth and this is going to exacerbate current skills shortages. A survey of 400 businesses conducted by the Australian Industry Group and Deloitte found that over a quarter of companies could not find workers to fill vacant pos...

36. Good faith or bad?

What have meat and good faith got in common? Apparently not much if we are to believe Commissioner Hampton and the AMIEU! A meat packaging company was negotiating a new enterprise agreement (EA) with its employees through a joint consultative committee (JCC). None of the committee members were bargaining representatives under the Fair Work Act ...

37. Sham contracting in the spotlight

So-called sham contracting arrangements - essentially where (usually young) employees are classified as independent contractors instead of employees - have been subject to ATO attention for some time. The ATO has a concern that, when times are tough, businesses may be tempted to cut corners to stay afloat or prop up their ...

38. Group buying revenue starts to fall as larger players begin

Revenue growth in the group buying industry has started to decline from its peak but the market is still ripe for larger entrants with existing audiences, such as media companies, new figures have revealed. The new figures come as radio group DMG has announced the launch of its own group buying website in order to promote deals to its younger audience. The figures from Quantium research, an analytics firm which analyses data for a number of major companies including NAB, sho...

39. The biggest property myth of 2011

Probably the biggest property myth of 2011 was the claim that Australia was in a "property bubble" that was about to burst. It was only a few years ago when "doomsday economist" Steve Keen predicted Australian house prices would plummet. Awkwardly for him, average house prices went up 40% rather than down. Interestingly, he now predicts that house prices will fall around 10% this year. I must admit I can see property values falling further in some areas, but I don't see a pr...

40. The final word on Australian house prices: Joye

There is an enormous amount of time wasted debating whether Australian house prices are over- or under-valued. The vast bulk of everything that is written on this subject is, unfortunately, both factually flawed and misleading.   Today I want to objectively eviscerate the long-standing myth that the Australian housing market is in the throes of an unsustainable bubble using two very simple charts, which you are unlikely to have seen before.   By referencing this analysis...

41. Recruiting’s new challenge… OHS in a mess… Super’s e

    Recruiting’s new challenge   Chief executives are being forced to change the way they recruit and the type of people they target as the skills shortage worsens.   About 68% of CEOs say it is harder to find staff this year than it was last year, according to a survey by The Executive Connection.   Nearly half of the CEOs say they are looking to recruit overseas, mainly for staff in professional services, trades and mi...

42. SMEs urged to get on top of New Year changes to warranty and

Small- and medium-sized enterprises are being urged to take heed of new laws covering consumer guarantees and warranties and workplace health and safety that have taken effect in the New Year. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says under standardised consumer guarantees that take effect in 2012, "small businesses should be aware of the rights a consumer has for a refund, repair or replacement of faulty products or product that don't do what they advertise". "If it...

43. The irony of industrial action

In a curious decision, the Full Bench of Fair Work Australia in the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council Case (July 22, 2011) upheld the approval of a protected action ballot application made by the Australian Nursing Federation, which authorised the communication by employees to the media and clients of their industrial campaign and the wearing...

44. The power to make workers work

A common complaint of many employers is that one of their workers refuses to do a specific task. “What should I do?” they ask. Their questions are usually directed at the disciplinary process. Employers forget the immediate tool they have in their arsenal though. What is that tool? Simply to advise the worker: “I am ...

45. Greens back NSW Government’s demands for union-friendly OH

The NSW Government's threat to back out of the national occupational health and safety regime unless controversial union-friendly changes are made to the legislation has received the backing of the Greens. NSW Premier Kristina Keneally last week wrote to Prime Minster Julia Gillard saying that NSW would not be part of the national regime, due to come in from January 2012, unless two parts of NSW state OHS laws are made part of the national legislation: the right to prosecute employers fo...

46. Not just a matter of chicken and egg when it comes to OH&S

Can you delegate your OHS responsibility to a subcontractor? That’s the question raised by a High Court case involving poultry giant Baiada. Baiada Poultry provided a trailer with chicken crates to DMP Poultry. DMP was a subcontractor who went to chicken growers, caught the chickens, put them in cages and loaded the cages onto a t...

47. The union’s at the gate…

If a union official knocks on your door, do you have to let them in? By PETER VITALE of VECCI.By Peter VitaleMany small and medium-sized employers operate in an environment where few if any employees are members of trade uni...

48. It’s a fat, old OHS risk we can’t afford to take

Factors such as the 2009 recession, the worldwide economic malaise, an erosion in the value of superannuation savings, house price drops and the real value loss in wages have all caused working Australians over the age of 55 to continue working until they can afford to retire. Changes to pensions and the tightened availability of other government benefits means that ...

49. Making social media legally safe for all

Social media is the new frontier of bad behaviour. Whether it is misrepresenting the capacities of an organisation (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Allergy Pathway [2011]), the Commonwealth Bank of Australia requiring its employees to rectify inappropriate postings by friends or even strangers made about the...

50. What to do to make sure working from home works

Advances in technology mean working from home has never been easier and research has shown it can make employees more productive and happier in their jobs. The benefits of “teleworking” are touted as including increased productivity, saving on office space and overheads, increased employee retention and reduced carbon footprint. ...