With the new financial year fast approaching, businesses and human resource managers must now turn their minds to workplace planning and employee entitlements, having regard to new changes that will come into effect on 1 July 2016. National minimum wage As is required every year, the Fair Work Commission has reviewed the national minimum wage…
Author: Staff Writer
Out of work conduct: when is dismissal justified?
We see it all the time in professional sports: athletes losing their contracts over poor decisions made away from the game. Take for example, Todd Carney who was spectacularly sacked from the Cronulla Sharks, without procedural fairness, following the ‘bubbler’ incident, or Nick D’Arcy who was kicked off the Australian swimming team bound for the…
Balancing your need for information with workplace surveillance legislation
Workplace surveillance can be a tricky slope to manage for employers, with their thirst for knowledge about their employee’s activities sometimes outweighing their requirement to comply with legislative obligations. It is understandable: an employer provides the workplace so therefore, they should be able to monitor that workplace in any way they like, right? Unfortunately that…
The Five Golden Rules of Coaching Uncooperative Employees
Uncooperative employees are hard to deal with at the best of times, but what about when you are actively coaching them? It is not hard to understand why many managers resile from such a task. However, coaching is an integral part of a manager’s role and uncooperative employees are always going to exist. I have…
Are workers compensation laws creating discrimination?
I have been concerned for a long time about the interaction between disability discrimination protections and an employer’s liability under workers compensation legislation. The Dilemma Consider the hypothetical but common situation of a person who has been required to take time out of the workplace due to illness. Sarah has been out of the workplace…
Stopping Employee Gossiping in its Tracks
I know what you’re thinking, a bit of workplace gossiping is harmless, right? Well think again. What might start out as a bit of chatter can quickly turn into something much more toxic overnight. First a small group of staff are talking about the way a particular employee does her job or that she gets…