A recent decision of the Fair Work Commission has confirmed an employer’s right to put a proposed enterprise agreement to employees for their approval, despite the union’s request to continue to bargain.
Following the Australian Prime Minister’s announcement on 18 April 2017 that the 457 visa will be abolished and replaced with a new Temporary Skill Shortage visa from March 2018, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has issued further information on the upcoming changes that will impact the 457 visa programme. Additional legislative and policy
The Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, announced yesterday afternoon that the 457 visa will be abolished and replaced with a new Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa to better address genuine skill shortages and protect the Australian local labour force. The implementation of these reforms will begin immediately and will be completed in March 2018.
The Supreme Court of Victoria’s decision of Jurecek v Director, Transport Safety Victoria [2016] VSC 285 clarifies the application of privacy law to an employee’s social media account, specifically in relation to an employer collecting and using information gathered from an employee’s Facebook account when investigating misconduct.
The new national code for the tendering and performance of building work 2016 (Code 2016) commenced on 2 December 2016 to coincide with the re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). The governing legislation is the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016 (Act).
The Code 2016 applies to building contractors carrying out building work from the first time they submit an expression of interest or tender for Commonwealth funded building work on or after 2 December 2016.
Key aspects of the changes deal with eligibility to express interest, tender for and be awarded commonwealth funded building work.
The Federal Circuit Court of Australia (FCCA) has found that the Court has the power under s46PO(4) of the Australian Human Right Commission Act 1986 (Cth) (AHRC Act) to set aside a deed of release, where the deed comes into existence as a consequence of unlawful discrimination.[1]
In the recent case of Skinner et al v Asciano Services Pty Ltd T/A Pacific National Bulk [2017] FWCFB 574 the Full Bench found that an employer breached its obligation to explore redeployment options under s.389(2) of the Fair Work Act 2009 after making 7 of its employees redundant without properly considering job swaps and voluntary redundancies with other employees. These 7 employees who had previously had their unfair dismissal applications dismissed, consequently had their applications remitted for re-hearing.
Last month, 54 employees of a Singapore Government-linked company, Surbana Jurong, were terminated from employment. A local newspaper, Today, reported that the Group Chief Executive of Surbana had sent a firm-wide email explaining the firm’s decision to terminate these employees and labelling them as poor performers who could not be allowed to drag down the rest of the organization.
A recent decision of the District Court of Western Australia provides some positive news for employers facing a workers’ compensation claim for a stress-related injury caused by disciplinary action.
At first instance in Woodside Energy v Kieronski [2016] WADC 144 the arbitrator held that Ms Kieronski was entitled to compensation for a psychiatric condition caused by stress from being stood down pending an investigation into allegations of serious misconduct. Woodside successfully appealed this decision to the District Court.
The case turned on the interpretation and application of an important carve-out that exists in other jurisdictions across Australia.[1] The carve-out places the onus on employees to demonstrate that their psychiatric injury did not result from “reasonable management action”.
In Western Australia, the carve-out is found in the definition of ‘injury’ in section 5(1) when read with section 5(4) of the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981. It applies when an employer dismisses, retrenches, demotes, redeploys or disciplines an employee. Provided the disciplinary process is not “unreasonable and harsh”, employers will not be required to compensate employees for stress-related conditions that an employee develops as a result.
The landscape of Singapore’s employment law is set to see a number of changes in 2017. Several parliamentary bills were set in motion in the course of 2016, resulting in a number of amendments made to key employment legislation, some of which took effect as early as 1 January 2017.
2017 will also see the setting up of the Employment Claims Tribunal which will be the new institution handling salary-related disputes for all levels of employees regardless of their salary levels (with a few exceptions). The Employment Claims Tribunal will reside within the Singapore court system and will be the successor to the existing Labour Court. These key changes are outlined below.