HR Blogs

The Right to Disconnect Bill which was passed last week will come into effect in the coming months once Royal Assent has been received.

In Australia, workers in many outdoor industries are frequently exposed to hot ambient conditions, as most parts of the country experience hot summer and frequent heatwaves that can last for a week or longer.

A worker at Agrigrain Pty Ltd will be paid damages after a machine had exploded in his face.

An Operations Manager at Connect Logistics Pty Ltd, Cris Large, was sentenced to 3 years in jail after four deaths at work. In April 2020, Mohinder Singh was driving a Connect Logistics truck and fell asleep at the wheel, consequently killing four police officers.

Superannuation is now an entitlement under the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act as of 1 January 2024. As such, please note the following:

A Fair Work Inspector issued a Compliance Notice to a carpentry business in Victoria’s South Gippsland region after forming a belief that a young full time apprentice carpenter had been underpaid minimum wages during his employment between July 2019 and June 2021.

In August 2023, a former employee of Highland Pine Products Pty Ltd who worked as an electrician, lodged an unfair dismissal claim with the Fair Work Commission.

October has been National Safe Work month with all state regulatory bodies urging employers to focus on various issues relating to safety and wellbeing.

In the third quarter of 2023, significant amendments were made to workplace health and safety laws in every Australian jurisdiction.

There are some proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) within the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (the Bill) around casual employment and implications for employers.

Over the last couple of months, Victorian businesses have had to fork out thousands of extra dollars to pay for escalating Workcover premiums.

The decision made in case SafeWork NSW v JBS Australia Pty Ltd [2023] NSWDC 382 (19 September 2023) has demonstrated the need for businesses to ensure they have documented safe work practices in place to prevent serious risk of harm.

Every business must ensure they have Workers Compensation Insurance to cover all their employees.

A glass manufacturer terminated an employee with an alcohol dependency problem who had previously considered suicide after he was found to have consumed alcohol at work.

Earlier this year, there was a targeted investigation in Melbourne’s inner south and west food precincts by Fair Work investigators who recovered $684,543 in wages for 1,004 underpaid workers.

Recently the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Protecting Worker Entitlements) Act 2023 was passed which altered five key areas of employment law, two of which were effective 1 July 2023

Victorian employers that collected ‘vaccination information’ in accordance with the state Occupational Health and Safety Amendment (COVID-19 Vaccination Information) Regulations 2022 must now destroy that information within the next 14 days, as the Amendment Regulations have now been revoked.

Every state but Tasmania recognises industrial manslaughter as a crime with varying but substantial financial penalties for businesses and prison time for individuals.

The Fair Work Commission has just announced its decision regarding the 2023 Annual Wage Review.

Boral Resources (Vic) Pty Ltd was charged with six breaches of the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, relating to workers' exposure to respirable crystalline silica at its Montrose quarry.

Currently, the Federal Government offers Paid Parental Leave of 18 weeks to primary carers with a separate two-week paid initiative for partners called ‘Dad and Partner Pay’.

Workcover Premiums will be increasing across each State from 1 July 2023 which will put an added pressure on many businesses.

Previously if a business was having a shut down, for example between Christmas and New Year, an employer could direct an employee to use their annual leave for the duration of the shutdown.

Oricon Group Pty Ltd has been sentenced for breaching the Victorian OHS Act after five workers were injured in a scaffold collapse at a multi-townhouse development in Craigieburn Victoria.

If your business is registered in NSW, QLD, SA or VIC (these are what are classified as the ‘managed states’ which have government run workers compensation schemes)

We’ve all heard about workplace wellbeing programs but why should 2023 be the year that your business designs or revises a tailored program?

A total of nearly 30 WHS Codes of Practice have been amended in the ACT, NSW and Queensland to reflect the national transition to the seventh revised edition of the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS 7), and for other purposes.

A ruling that a worker's knife-attack injuries weren't compensable, because of a possible drug-dealing connection, has been revoked for misapplying the "course of employment" test and considering "irrelevant matters".