Employment contracts should include two specific clauses to help employers avoid the risks associated with managing ill and injured workers, according to an employment lawyer.
Many employees willingly work long hours, but even if no one's complaining, employers should monitor extra hours to ensure they are reasonable, a lawyer warns.
The Fair Work Act and National Employment Standards offer some guidance on when employers can reasonably refuse annual leave requests, but employers should have a specific policy to fill in the gaps, a lawyer says.
An employer that moved a full-time employee to a part-time role to reduce its workers' compensation costs has been ordered to pay more than $470k in damages and fines.
An employer must pay a worker $110k in damages, after an appeal court found the terms of his contract required more than an "opinion" of wrongdoing to justify his dismissal.
A CEO's redundancy payment has been slashed by $2.5m after an appeal court found he forfeited it by failing to sign a deed of release, while another executive who was originally denied a severance payment has been awarded $375,000.
A recent high-profile case involving a BlueScope Steel employee accused of stealing sensitive and confidential information should send a warning to all employers to have secure contracts in place, lawyers say.
An employer reasonably and lawfully directed an employee to change her hair colour after she dyed it fluorescent pink for a breast cancer fundraiser, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Shifting the emphasis in unfair dismissal proceedings off process and onto the reasons for termination would - if implemented - be a welcome change for HR professionals, employment lawyers say.
Costly legal disputes continue to highlight the many risks employers face when managing, disciplining, or dismissing employees while they are absent, injured or incapacitated. Attend this webinar for an up-to-date review of the legal framework applying to workplace absenteeism, injury and incapacity, and lessons from recent case law.
