Workplace Bullying

An intriguing matter that was recently before the Fair Work Commission, in relation to workplace bullying, has resulted in some rarely implemented outcomes. FWC issued an order which restricts the worker bringing the action from arriving at work before 8.15am and imposes a series of limits on the other employee while they are both at the workplace. For the employee whose actions led to the bullying application, the following regulations have been put in place:
  • The employee may not exercise on a balcony in front o
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Payment of Wages – Underpayments

It seems every week I am posting another story about underpayments of wages and highlighting the need for 3rd party reviews to focus on compliance by each and every business. In this instance, the business was in the bakery/restaurant area. It had to back-pay staff almost $80,000 after a Fair Work investigation found it had failed to pay its employees the correct rates. The areas of underpayment included minimum hourly rate of pay, casual loadings and penalty and overtime rates. A total of 94 employees were involved and t
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Termination Reinstated

Yet again an unfair dismissal case has shown the need to review all relevant factors before deciding to terminate an employee. In a recent case, an employee was found to have been terminated for a valid reason i.e. for overcharging for expenses but in the end was reinstated into his position. This was due to a further review in the matter showing his long service and the mitigating factors around the decision making. The employee offered to reimburse the company very early on in the process. The company did not immediately
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Workplace Complaints – What to do

Almost every day now we read something about bullying, harassment or discrimination in the workplace. The constant theme that results from these incidents is the need to handle  them quickly via a well-documented and publicised grievance process. Prevention is always preferable to reaction in these circumstances. This reiterates the need for training and circulation of all HR policies and procedures. This means that if an issue arises, you are able to clearly identify and confirm the steps within your policy and commit t
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Pro-active Compliance Deed – Another Signee

As reported on the Fair Work Ombudsman Website, the Retail Zoo Group is the latest major franchisor to sign up to a Pro-active Compliance Deed (PCD) with the Fair Work Ombudsman. Retail Zoo Pty Ltd is the holding company of the Boost Juice Bars, Salsas Fresh Mex, Cibo Espresso and Hatch Chicken Shop group of companies. Retail Zoo employ around 5000 workers across almost 300 stores. Under the terms of the PCD, they must develop systems and processes to ensure ongoing compliance with Commonwealth workplace legislation. In ad
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Payment of Wages – Underpayments

In this instance we have seen a large company face a significant issue of underpaying their staff. Former operators of a chain of 7-Eleven stores in Victoria face fines of $150,000 dollars for regular underpayments to their staff. It must be noted that this is just one of around 25,000 claims the Fair Work Ombudsman deal with concerning underpayment of wages each year. We know there are some instances where employers are looking to “milk the system”. Others are due to things like errors within their seemingly safe syst
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Internships and Unpaid Work – What to Expect

As previously mentioned, the Fair Work Ombudsman has reported a huge increase in queries concerning the issues of internships and unpaid work. In a stark rise, the number of people complaining about internships and unpaid work has almost doubled from 520 in the 2012/13 financial year to 981 in 2013/14. The following quote from a spokesperson for the Fair Work Ombudsman should be very clear to any business trying to work around the system: “Businesses disguising employment relationships as unpaid internships should know
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What are the biggest issues in HR today ?

I recently reviewed a fascinating set of responses to the above mentioned question. The range of responses was everything from Diversity to Talent to Leadership. The one which resonated the most was from Charles Power, an accredited specialist in workplace relations at Holding Redlich. Charles identified the Fair Work Act, general protections scheme and anti-discrimination laws were the key contributors to the big issues currently faced by employers. For those of you following my comments, this is exactly the narrative I ha
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The Fair Work Commission has ruled a company’s requirement for an employee to work additional unpaid hours and make himself available on-call was neither lawful nor reasonable in upholding an employee’s unfair dismissal claim. The Company terminated the employee after the employee wanted to continue negotiations over a new on-call requirement which had come about after an issue on receiving calls after hours. The Company’s technical manager emailed all IT staff to advise them their contracts would be revised to inclu
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Compliance Inspections

Fair Work has been out and about in Victoria with some follow up visit’s, the purpose of which is to ensure the businesses are maintaining ongoing compliance. As we have stated many times at HR central, as Employers we must remain vigilant at all times with our attention to compliance. It is critical employers understand their responsibilities and are providing employees with their lawful entitlements. The Fair Work Ombudsman is very clear “Where inspectors find businesses which are non-compliant, they will require emp
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