A lot of employees ask, ‘can I be defamed during a workplace investigation?’ Most workplace investigations will involve some form of allegation or accusation. Defamation laws exist to protect a person’s reputation, including protection from unfounded accusations.

A genuine redundancy occurs when an employee’s employment is terminated at the employer’s initiative because the employer no longer requires that job to be done by anyone. The exception to this is where the employment ends due to the “ordinary and customary turnover of labour”.

An accountancy firm and a principal advisor from the firm have been fined almost $70,000 for contraventions of the Fair Work Act 2009. The firm was the accountant for a number of entities being investigated by the Fair Work Ombudsman for failure to keep employee records in contravention of the Act.

If an employee wants to shortcut the workplace disciplinary process, or they’re having a tough time at work and want to look at negotiating an exit, they can consider making a ‘without prejudice’ offer to settle the dispute by offering to resign in return for a settlement payout.

The Fair Work Commission determines that a Church employee’s dismissal for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine was unfair and awards $8,000 in compensation.

Laws giving employees the right to refuse employer contact outside working hours came into effect from 26 August 2024 for employees of non-small businesses (15 or more employees). The same rights will become available for small business employees from 26 August 2025.

If you’ve been terminated and you believe that termination is harsh, unjust or unreasonable, you may be eligible for an unfair dismissal claim in the Fair Work Commission.

From 26 August 2024, the Fair Work Act definition of “employee” has changed. The changes were made to address issues related to the classification and treatment of independent contractors, ensuring fairer work conditions and protections for such workers.

Fixed term employment contracts are contracts that terminate at the end of an agreed specified period. Since December 2023, changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 now ensure that fixed term employment contracts have a maximum contract period of no more than two years.

In this blog, we focus on one particular kind of restraint, the “non-compete” covenant, which is an obligation contained within a contract of employment that expresses itself as preventing an employee from working for one or more alternative employers or a certain class of them or establishing a competing business of their own.

Despite significant headway in recent years in campaigns for equal pay for women, we are still some way off pay equality. In 2022, the Albanese Government took steps to expand that power in the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022. The full effect of these recent amendments has yet to be realised.

Absent specific circumstances being established, employers have no right to control their employees’ conduct outside of work. However, if an employee’s out of work conduct has a significant and adverse effect on their employment, then an employer may be able to take disciplinary action, which may include termination of employment.