AWL Bulletins
News articles written by Australian Workplace Lawyers for reference and review:
Employment law applies to nannies and au pairs too you know!
In an increasingly pressured modern world, many families are looking for assistance to meet their children’s daily needs. Often this is done by engaging a nannie or au pair who may be an overseas national. In years past, it was common to simply pay in cash for this...
Work from home: still a privilege and not a right?
The times they are changing. Certain classes of employee have had a right for some years now to seek workplace flexibility. However, the ability to work from home (even for a day a week) has traditionally been very much the exception rather than the rule. Of...
Work contracts between fitness/personal trainers and gyms: Dodgy as?
We have on several occasions had to give advice to fitness/personal trainers wishing to end their engagement contracts with gyms or personal training establishments. There is often a significant power imbalance between the individual trainer and the business which...
Fair Work Commission conferences: Do your homework!
“I’ll just go to the Fair Work Commission and tell my story”. It is a familiar refrain, but it’s not that simple, and it’s about to get harder. The Fair Work Commission is struggling with an increased workload. This means that claimants and respondents alike need...
Employers should avoid using “Rule 303” to fire employees
Breaker Morant reputedly said "We caught them and we shot them under Rule 303". The worst thing an employer can do is make a snap decision to terminate employment. This is particularly the case where no procedural fairness is given and the employer is personally...
How to avoid disputes between chief executives and volunteer boards of management
We sometimes see tension between employed chief executives and volunteer boards of management, particularly in the not for profit sector. This includes the operational chief executive whether described as a CEO, general manager or coordinator and the governing body...
Multiple decision makers and employment termination – Who’s the One?
The terminated employee has a variety of legal options open to them. They usually involve the employer having to explain and justify their reasons for termination, sometimes in court. This can be an uncomfortable experience and decisions which seemed clear at the...
Coldplayed: Can you trust Human Resources to do the right thing with your complaint or disciplinary action?
There has been an increasing level of individual workplace disputes in recent years. In its last annual report, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) noted an almost one third increase in the number of applications over the previous year. A significant reason in our view...
Redundancies: Now you see them, now you don’t!
When an employee’s job gets made redundant, they normally get a redundancy payment right? Sometimes employers are reluctant to make redundancy payments, particularly where employers have generous policies or enterprise agreements providing for more than the National...
Minimum wage update 2025 – Reversing the living standards squeeze?
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) handed down its Annual Wage Review decision on 3 June 2025. The FWC decided to increase the National Minimum Wage and all modern award rates by 3.5% (the rise in award rates over the last 3 years has been 3.75%, 5.75% and 4.6%...