As reported in an earlier post, the UK Government introduced mandatory gender pay gap reporting in 2017.
An independent review conducted in 2017, Race in the workplace, made a number of recommendations for removing the barriers to workplace progression faced by ethnic minorities including the introduction of mandatory reporting of ethnicity pay data. At
Following an April 25, 2019 federal court ruling, employers with 100 or more employees should begin to prepare to report pay data to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by September 30, 2019. While there is a possibility that an appeals court could stay this
The Labour Appeal Court (LAC) has reaffirmed that employers must be tolerant of employee religious beliefs.
In TDF Network Africa (Pty) Ltd v Deidre Beverley Faris, it ruled that the employee was discriminated against and unfairly dismissed for practising her religion. Faris, a Seventh Day Adventist, refused to attend monthly Saturday stock takes
La loi « Pacte » (Loi relative à la croissance et la transformation des entreprises) a été adoptée en lecture définitive par l’Assemblée Nationale le 11 avril dernier, après de longs mois de débats devant l’Assemblée Nationale et le Sénat.
Elle a fait l’objet d’un recours devant le Conseil Constitutionnel, saisi le 16 avril dernier.
En avril 2018, nous vous informions que le projet de loi 176 modifiant la LNT (en vigueur depuis le 12 juin 2018) allait avoir des conséquences pour les agences de placement. De nombreux détails demeuraient toutefois en suspens jusqu’à l’adoption d’un règlement venant préciser les modalités d’application de ces nouvelles dispositions.
En date du 10
The Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, in conjunction with the Commission for Occupational Safety and Health and the Mining Industry Advisory Committee, has released a Code of Practice “Mentally healthy workplaces for fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers in the resources and construction sectors” (Code).[1] The Code recommends implementing a risk-based approach to prevent and manage harm from psychosocial hazards and risk factors in the workplace.
The Code is the first of its kind in Australia, and follows on from a research report provided to the WA Mental Health Commission in September 2018.[2] The aim is to provide guidelines for establishing, monitoring and maintaining the mental health of FIFO workers. Although it is targeted at the resources and construction sectors in Western Australia, the Code is relevant to any employer with a FIFO workforce or a long distance commuting workforce, and therefore provides a useful model for many employers across Australia.
The Code also highlights the importance of a mentally healthy workplace and the importance of leadership and workplace culture in developing and maintaining a mentally healthy workplace.
Amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) take effect from 1 July 2019 ushering in significant changes to Australia’s whistleblowing laws.[1] Chief among the key changes is a requirement on public companies and large proprietary companies[2] to have a compliant whistleblowing policy by 1 January 2020. A failure to have such a policy will be a criminal offence attracting a maximum penalty of $126,000.
As it is unlikely existing whistleblowing policies will be fully compliant with the new whistleblowing regime, it is important that organisations review their current arrangements for dealing with whistleblowers and make appropriate changes to their policy and process.
Importantly, while not all companies are obliged to have a whistleblowing policy, they must comply with the new laws, particularly their obligations to maintain confidentiality and take reasonable steps to prevent detrimental conduct towards a whistleblower. Having a policy will assist these companies to comply with such obligations, which come into effect from 1 July 2019, and also accords with best practice.
As reported in an earlier article on this blog, Marie Boland (former Executive Director of SafeWork SA) undertook the first review of the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws and delivered her report on 25 February 2019 (Report).
The Report concluded that the model WHS laws are operating as intended and the “three-tier framework” (the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act, model WHS regulations and the model Codes) was effective and widely supported as being flexible enough to accommodate the changing nature of work.
Of the 34 recommendations in the report, the recommendations concerning the introduction of an industrial manslaughter offence and addition of ‘gross negligence’ to the category 1 offence, were the subject of our previous article.
The national WHS Ministers are expected to respond to the Report’s recommendations later this year.
In addition to the Report’s recommendation, the Senate (Education and Employment References Committee) inquiry into industrial deaths report from October 2018 (Senate inquiry report) also recommended the introduction of an industrial manslaughter offence. The Senate inquiry report states that the committee were of the “…strong view that there needs to be a nationally consistent industrial manslaughter provision introduced into the model WHS legislation” and that the Queensland model was “…worthy of consideration” for drafting purposes.
In that context it is useful to briefly review the current position around Australia with respect to industrial manslaughter offences. Queensland’s industrial manslaughter offence, contained in the WHS Act, attracts maximum penalties of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of over $10 million (100,000 penalty units) for body corporates. The ACT provisions are contained in the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT) and provide for a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $320,000 for individuals or $1.6 million for employers.
In Thoma v. Schaefer Elevator Components Inc., 2019 BCSC 100, Mr. Thoma’s employment contract allowed his employer, Schaefer Elevator, to terminate his employment without cause on six months’ notice by providing Mr. Thoma his “contractually agreed remuneration during the six months’ notice period.” Mr. Thoma claimed that this included payment of an annual bonus
The French authorities have been very prolific in the area of effecting reforms to employment law, and 2019 will not be an exception to this general rule (although perhaps less so than was the case in 2017 and 2018).
First, in 2019, a certain number of reforms promulgated in 2017 and 2018 will either come