Posts: Small Business

Many businesses, and in particular small businesses employers subscribe to human resources information systems which offer access to template letters and policies to provide a ready-made solution or to manage human resources administration.

It is not uncommon for employers and employees to agree to flexible working hours, particularly in circumstances where the employee has family or other caring responsibilities. Such arrangements are best recorded in writing, setting out clear expectations of the employee.

The general protections provisions under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) provide protections against adverse action which is taken for a prohibited reason. Prohibited reasons for taking adverse action include situations where a person has a workplace right and exercises (or proposes to exercise) that right. Workplace rights include the right to utilise leave entitlements under the FW Act.

No employer operates in a silo – all employers operate in complex systems of interrelated stakeholders including employees, customers, other businesses, and regulators who enforce the laws that apply to the employer and their business.

Terminating an employee’s employment can be a confronting situation. It is difficult news to deliver and is often fuelled with emotion.

Work Health & Safety, Employment Issues, Modern Awards, Discrimination & Harrassment

Employment Issues, Adverse Action & Unfair Dismissal, Industrial Issues

Modern Awards, employment issues, industrial issues, Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination, Work Health & Safety, Worker's compensation.

What is Casual Employment? Recent developments, possible claims, action plan.

Performance issues can be some of the most difficult for employers to manage and when performance management results in disciplinary action, employers need to be on the front foot to protect their interests and ensure compliance with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act).

Small businesses have a litany of rules, regulations and red tape they are required to comply with, including registration and tax compliance, employee minimum entitlements, fair trading, work health and safety and privacy obligations.

Baseless complaints or attempts at extortion are capable of amounting to serious misconduct, as exemplified in this case.

If dishonesty does find its way into the workplace, employers must act swiftly and hold employees accountable where necessary, so that it does not become a part of the workplace culture.

It is estimated that there is over $70,000 in unpaid wages owing to employees, and many of those are international workers on visas who are not eligible for the government-funded Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has recently handed down two separate decisions confirming that angry and aggressive conduct in the workplace will provide an employer with a valid reason or reasonable grounds (as per the Small Business Dismissal Code) for terminating an employee’s employment.

The Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) recent decision in CA v Lane Cove Retirement Units Association Ltd t/as Pottery Gardens Retirement Village [2016] FWC 7504 put the small business fair dismissal code (the Code) in the spotlight.

For most employers the disciplinary process with its obligation to ensure procedural fairness usually leads to a well-documented but often protracted process. For small business employers, where an employer has followed and is compliant with the requirements of the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, the employee is not (generally) to be considered to be unfairly dismissed.