The past year has seen some definitive rulings on what constitutes a casual employee or contractor, with important ramifications for all employers. Watch this HR Daily Premium webcast to understand what these cases mean for your organisation's contingent workforce arrangements.
Two workers have failed to convince the Fair Work Commission they were engaged under sham contracts, after their company separately launched legal action as a service provider.
A worker has failed to prove he was entitled to employee benefits for the seven years he performed duties for an organisation, after the Federal Circuit Court found the parties' arrangements indicated he was a contractor.
The Fair Work Commission's past approach to determining whether a worker is an employee or contractor is "no longer good law", a deputy president has said in rejecting an unfair dismissal claim.
The upcoming review of casual conversion rights presents an opportunity to "streamline" the process and address its "monstrous administrative burden", an employee relations specialist says.
Employers alone can't respond to the shift in what employees now want from work, and meeting expectations will require legislators to step in, a briefing heard this week.
The Fair Work Commission has made recommendations – but stopped short of orders – after an employee lodged a dispute about his right to convert from casual to permanent employment.
Australia's "far too complicated" industrial relations system requires numerous changes to afford both employers and employees more flexibility, an employer group says.
Many organisations will take comfort in the High Court's finding that written agreements are the determining factor in whether a worker is an employee or contractor, but this doesn't mean they can become complacent, a lawyer warns.
