In 2017, the Gforce Group (incorporating People@Work) commissioned a research project to understand trends within workplaces in Geelong, with information collected through interviews with human resources representatives from medium to large organisations.

All businesses increasingly rely on other service providers to deliver their products and services, and even a small business will have a surprisingly large supply chain made of many large and small suppliers (who of course have many of their own suppliers). 

In a Fair Work Commission hearing in December 2017, Deputy President Val Gostencnik found that under Australian law, Uber drivers are independent contractors, and therefore ineligible for unfair dismissal protection.

The court in Aussiegolfa v FCT has recently examined the in-house asset rules (s62) and sole purpose test (s71) of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act 1993 (Cth) (SISA).

Not every small business owner has the time to think through legal issues that could make or break their business. However, there are some important legal tips that every business owner should be aware of to avoid time consuming and expensive issues down the track. To assist the time poor, we have put together 10 legal tips to help small business mitigate business risk and achieve their commercial goals .

Equity crowd funding has taken some first, tentative practical steps.  The new crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime that started at the end of October 2017 - designed to reduce costs and red-tape for start-ups and SMEs looking to raise capital from a large number of small investors – is still being tweaked, as proprietary companies were excluded from eligibility.  This will be rectified with a bill currently before the Parliament. 

It’s been over a year since the Australian Consumer Law provided that terms that are ‘unfair’ in new or renewed consumer and small business contracts could be deemed void and unenforceable.