Published 26 February 2021 Claudia Montero v Club Holdings Pty Ltd T/A Horizons West Bus & Coach Lines [2021] FWC 733 (17 February 2021) An employer made an application to the Fair Work Commission to recover costs under section 611 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) from an employee who discontinued their unfair…
Author: Brian Powles
Brian is an accredited specialist in employment and industrial relations law, who is partner of a successful boutique Sydney law firm. He also hosts the Working Knowledge podcast.
School employees stood down due to a lack of ‘useful’ work during COVID-19 restrictions. Was this lawful?
Published 23 February 2021 Independent Education Union of Australia v The Peninsula School T/A Peninsula Grammar School [2021] FCCA 115 In Independent Education Union of Australia v The Peninsula School T/A Peninsula Grammar School [2021] FCCA 115 (IEU v PGS) the Fair Work Commission (the FWC) held that employees had been unlawfully stood down from…
Insourcing may be considered a redeployment option v redundancy
Published 17 February 2021 Facts In November 2019, Helensburgh Coal Pty Ltd (Helensburgh Coal) had entered into a service agreement with a conveyer belt contractor called Mentser. The service agreement provided that Mentser would undertake belt cleaning and improvement work at the Metropolitan Coal Mine (the Mine) and the contract was to commence in April 2020,…
Podcast | Independent Contractors and the Gig Economy
Published 12 February 2021 Following a recent unfair dismissal case involving Uber Eats, and their subsequent announcement of their new business model and contracts for delivery drivers, in this podcast we discuss the status of gig economy workers as independent contractors or employees – an issue that has been challenged in a number of courts…
Casual employee dismissed for refusing shifts while receiving JobKeeper
Published 12 February 2021 The Applicant was receiving JobKeeper payments of $750 per week which was approximately $475 more than his average weekly earnings before he began receiving JobKeeper. The respondent, a labour hire agency that provides ‘front of house’ staff in the hospitality industry, had written to its employees, including the Applicant, on multiple…
The Importance of Workplace Policies
Published 11 February 2021 Why do we have Workplace Policies? Workplace policies are an essential tool for managing employees and can even act as a safeguard for employers when facing litigation. While their most crucial function is to set out what is acceptable and unacceptable in the workplace, policies can also produce the side benefit…