Employee Relations – Termination Compensation Awarded

The Fair Work Commission has awarded a sales assistant nearly $30 000 for being summarily dismissed for alleged theft after it was found that there was no justification for the Company’s "inexcusable" behaviour in sacking her and reporting her to the police.   The managing director had acted appallingly in dismissing the sales assistant – with no solid evidence, just allegations, some missing invoices and downward trending cash sales.   The business was not able to provide the employee, the FWC or Q
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Employee Relations – Wages

The Reserve Banks’ February statement has raised some interesting comments and data from Employers. Interestingly, employers said workers appear willing to trade wage growth for greater job security – a significant development. However  employers, in a tough market have been careful not to offer salary wage increase below the expected inflation rate. The recent Jetset Pay deal is a good counter example. The statement says (in part): "Year-ended wage growth has slowed significantly across all states and territories,
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Bullying & Social Media

There have been some cases recently which looked at when an employee has been considered to be bullying ‘at work’. The context lies is the provisions of Fair Work Act and importantly it must be noted bullying includes what may occur on social media.   For example - bullying on social media can include: (1) abusive comments posted on Facebook. (2) Inappropriate photos of someone on Instagram.   Whilst those 2 examples are not surprising - Fair Work Commission (FWC) critically said it is still bullying. If
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Termination – Mitigating Factors

Another recent decision from Fair Work Commission has reinforced the importance of taking all potentially mitigating factors into account when deciding whether or not terminate and employee’s service – not just whether the employee had breached a policy. The Fair Work Commission stated a company had valid reason for dismissing the workers for breaching the safety rules, part of  a "workplace safety policy compliance with which was considered fundamental" and required by mine operation laws. However, the guidelines pro
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Termination use Industrial Relations experts

We often encourage employers to seek our advice prior to making decisions regarding terminations and a recent case has provided third party endorsement of this approach.   In this particular case BHP Coal must reinstate two truck drivers it had terminated for breaching its mobile  electronic devices “ on-site” policy.   At the core of the reasoning from the Fair Work Commission  was the decision makers in this case failed to ensure the dismissals were fair and the main element was they had Industrial Rela
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Underpayments of wages

The former operator of an Indian restaurant in North-East Victoria has agreed to back-pay two cooks more than $20,000, following an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.   The cooks were employed at the Hot Million Indian Restaurant in Mount Beauty, when it was owned and operated by Victorian man Hargulab Singh through his company Gurukirpa Ji Pty Ltd.   Both employees were males from India, including a 23-year-old on a 457 visa and a 36-year-old immigrant who is a perma
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Return to Work 2015

As you welcome back your employee’s from the Christmas break it is important to keep in mind that when your workers return to work safety may not be at the forefront of their mind.
This is because we have naturally relaxed and not been in work mode, so we are likely to have level of relaxation ,complacency and a general lack of focus – so its probably timely to provide a little reminder on OHS.
For example , some simple steps could be:

Adverse Action

As an employer, a term we don’t often come across but is starting to get more publicity is “Adverse Action”. What this means is employees are protected from having adverse action taken against them, including dismissal, taken against them for exercising a workplace right. Where it gets complicated is around “ the exercising of a workplace right" - which is an employee’s right to make a complaint or inquiry in relation to their employment. Recent Fair Work Australia cases highlight just how cautious you need to b
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Questions on Application Form

A recent decision has found Woolworths discriminated against online job applicants by requiring them to provide their gender, date of birth and proof of their right to work. The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal said the requirement to provide the information breached the state's Anti-Discrimination Act, and that Woolworths could not rely on a defense that it was "reasonably required". Job applications could not be submitted unless the information was provided on the on-line applications – Woolworths has since
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Termination Employer Following Procedure

We see a lot of examples where employers do the wrong thing, so it’s nice to balance this out with a recent case where Employers followed all the right steps and had the right result. In this case an applicant dismissed for removing confidential documents from workplace. This Fair Work Commission found the applicant did in fact remove the documents and was clearly aware she was not permitted. It also acknowledged the employer followed the proper steps. What was critical was what the employer did along the way which was
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