The FWC has recently delivered a ruling involving an analysis of an employee v independent contractor relationship post the High Court’s landmark decisions of Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union v Personnel Contracting Pty Ltd [2022] HCA 1 (Personnel Contracting) and ZG Operations Australia Pty Ltd v Jamsek [2022] HCA 2 (Jamsek) in this area last year.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) is presently considering referring the head of human resources for hospitality giant Mantle Group to the police after finding that he purposefully lied about a pay deal that deprived hundreds of workers of their penalty rates.

With the recent passing through both houses of Parliament of new legislation in the form of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022 (the Act), a raft of changes to the Australia workplace relations landscape are already in effect.

Employers regularly notice and complain when their employees are distracted through texting on their mobile phones. But, can an employee be dismissed for such an action when an employer determines the amount of texting has gone too far?

WorkCover and where is the starting point in a claim?

The first question, and basic starting point, if an employee suffers either an injury or illness is whether this injury or illness arises out of or in the course of employment. The key test is ‘in the course of employment’.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about sexual harassment and the new stop orders. What is the background and have employers and Government considered societal changes?

On Wednesday 4 August the High Court upheld the appeal of labour-hire company, WorkPac, in a decision which will come as welcome news to employers.

The Court unanimously overturned the May 2020 decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court which had held that an employee of WorkPac, Robert Rossato, was entitled to paid leave entitlements and public holiday payments as a permanent employee of the company, despite being contracted as a casual worker.

Many employers seek to enforce a requirement that its employees, or prospective employees, maintain a “satisfactory” criminal record. However, recently an employer’s ability to enforce such a requirement by terminating employment, or even withdrawing offer of employment, has been put into question by the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Fair Work Commission.