The deliberate underpayment of employee entitlements, such as wages, is not currently a criminal offence in Australia (despite the misleading use of the term by some). However, that is about to change with the Victorian Labor Government pledging to criminalise “wage theft” and the NSW Labor Opposition Party also committing to do the same should […]

The employment relationship is one of contract.  Without a contract, there can be no employment. However, society has long recognised a need for more than merely a contract to govern the employment relationship. We need rules. A very clear example of this is a comparison between the NRL and the NFL – particularly in the […]

Wage theft is one of the flavours of the month in the industrial relations space at the moment with repeated calls to introduce tough criminal penalties for those employers who “steal” their employees’ wage by underpaying them. There is no doubt that all employees should be paid what they are owed for a hard day’s […]

The recent Fair Work Commission (the Commission) decision in Lamacq v Smerff Electrical demonstrates a classic case of what an employer should not do when terminating an employee. Business Owner, Mr Hickey, alleged his employee, Lamacq, used his business vehicle and fuel card for personal use and engaged in unauthorised ‘cash jobs’ that diverted business […]

Can an employer indefinitely suspend an employee who has been charged with a serious criminal offence for conduct that occurred outside of work? That is the question facing the St George Illawarra Dragons at the moment with widespread calls for Dragons player Jack de Belin to be suspended indefinitely until the serious sexual assault charges […]