When extending Part 6-4C of the Fair Work Act (Cth) (FW Act), the government recognised there would be employers who had previously qualified for the JobKeeper scheme, but who would no longer qualify to participate in the scheme following its extension past the end of September 2020.

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

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has claimed victory in the federal election, as the Coalition achieved the slim majority in Australia’s federal parliament.

We briefly outline the likely key amendments to the Fair Work Act, as promised by the Coalition Government prior to the election, and other possible amendments to the workplace relations legislative framework.

More than five years after the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) commenced operation, uncertainty still attaches to the meaning of “workplace right”, which is a critical concept in the operation of the Act’s “general protections”.

General protections

The Act makes it unlawful for an employer to take “adverse action” against an employee

With ever increasing economic pressures employers are frequently required to consider ways to reduce employment and labour costs. While there are many ways to lawfully achieve this, requiring an employee to become an independent contractor performing the same work, certainly isn’t one of them.

The recent case of The Director of the Fair Work Building

Transport Workers’ Union of Australia v Atkins [2014] FCCA 1553 (18 August 2014)

The Federal Circuit Court has recently ordered a transport operator to pay close to the maximum penalty for summarily dismissing the employee after he took carer’s leave to take his daughter to a medical appointment with a specialist.

The facts

The employee

Rights of employees upon redundancy of their position and in the case of any resulting termination of the employee’s employment will depend upon whether the employee falls into the Federal employment and industrial relations jurisdiction (National System Employees) or under the jurisdiction of the State in which the employee works.

National System Employees