The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has issued a guidance note (Guidance) in relation to financial reporting and audit requirements under Chapter 2M of the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act).[1]
In August 2020, the Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission released its new and updated guideline for complying with the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) (Equal Opportunity Act): Preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment (Guideline).
Under the whistleblowing regime in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (CA), it is unlawful for someone to cause or threaten to cause detriment to, or victimise, a person because they believe or suspect that the person has made, may have made, or could make a whistleblowing disclosure (Whistleblower). Very substantial civil and criminal sanctions apply for both the individual engaging in detrimental conduct and the corporation that employs the Whistleblower and the antagonist.
The Full Court of the Federal Court has handed down a decision with potentially far-reaching ramifications for the manner in which principals deal with superannuation in respect of independent contractors (Dental Corporation v Moffet [2020] FCAFC 188).
The Federal Court of Australia (FCA) recently considered this issue in Broadlex Services Pty Ltd v United Workers’ Union [2020] FCA 867,[1] holding that an employee who was required to transfer her full-time employment to part-time was entitled to redundancy pay, because the employer no longer required the full-time job to
On 16 June 2020, the Victorian Parliament passed the Wage Theft Bill 2020 in response to a series of high-profile underpayment cases. The prevalence of these underpayments, according to Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy, indicates that the civil penalty regime under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) is failing to provide a sufficient deterrent against wage theft. Victoria’s answer to wage theft – meaning the dishonest underpayment of employees – is to introduce criminal liability as a deterrent and establish a new body to investigate and prosecute wage theft offences.
The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales considered this issue in Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer v Hill [2020] NSWCA 54,[1] confirming that a death which happened while working from home occurred as a result of injury arising out of and in the course of the deceased’s employment.
On 12 February 2020 the Fair Work Commission (Commission) amended the Miscellaneous Award 2010 with effect from 1 July 2020. The changes extend the coverage of this Award to traditionally award-free employees with potentially far reaching consequences for some employers.
Queensland’s first industrial manslaughter sentence was handed down yesterday by the Brisbane District Court for the death of a worker at an auto recycling yard in 2019.
Laws introducing the offence of industrial manslaughter in the resources sector were passed by Queensland Parliament on 20 May 2020.