Our legal experts will keep you up to date on all relevant and current developments.
In the context of claims for negligence, there are few authorities providing guidance in relation to conduct that amounts to bullying. The District Court of New South Wales has recently determined a claim by a plaintiff who alleges that he sustained a psychological injury as a result of three instances of workplace bullying that occurred over a 5 year period (see Lal v Australian Administration Services Pty Ltd).
Congratulations to Kristen Hammond, Associate in our Workplace Relations team, on her recent nomination as Young Gun of the Year in The Lawyers Weekly 2015 Women In Law Awards.
The Women In Law Awards recognises the achievements of female legal professionals in all areas and at all levels, with the winners being announced at a black tie gala dinner in Melbourne on 27 November. All of us at Holman Webb wish Kristen the best of luck.
A critical lesson from the Quakers Hill Nursing Home disaster is to conduct adequate pre-employment screening and check references on new employees.
These principles may also be applied to conducting adequate background checks and checking references on independent contractors such as agency staff, volunteers and potential residents.
The recent blockades of Australia’s waterfront and ports may bring flashbacks to the 1998 Waterfront Dispute and have people questioning where the workplace word of the millennium, “Collaboration” has gone.
The Queensland Treasurer, Curtis Pitt, on 15 July 2015 introduced into Queensland Parliament the Workers’ Compensation & Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 (Qld) (the Bill). The Bill makes a number of amendments to the Workers’ Compensation & Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) (WC&RA), the most significant of which is clause 6 which will see the removal from the WC&RA of the requirement for a worker’s injury to have an assessed degree of permanent impairment (DPI) of more than 5% in order for a worker to be entitled to bring a common law claim against their employer. The amendment is proposed to be back dated to commence on 31 January 2015 (the date the Qld state election was held).
The recently decided case of The Fair Work Ombudsman v Crocmedia Pty Ltd provided a hard learned lesson for employers about the importance of correctly classifying and remunerating employees. The case highlights the importance of understanding that employment relationships have a legal definition and employer’s cannot simply dressed up employment as an unpaid internship or work experience in order to escape any obligation to remunerate pursuant to the Fair Work Act 2009 (“FWA”).
In the recent general protections’ case of Heriot v Sayfa Systems Pty Limited [2014] FCCA 1622, an employee’s dismissal by way of a mutual termination was held to be adverse action against the employee.
Welcome to the first edition of the Holman Webb Workplace Relations Bulletin December 2014.
In Byrne v People Resourcing (Qld) Pty Ltd & Anor [2014] QSC (Byrne), Carmody CJ held that WorkCover Queensland (WorkCover) was required to indemnify the plaintiff’s employer, People Resourcing (Qld) Pty Ltd (PRQ) a labour hire company in relation to a contractual indemnity that PRQ had provided to one of its clients/host employers, Thiess John Holland (TJH).