Federal Parliament is foreshadowing strong new penalties for employers who underpay their workers, including the introduction of criminal penalties. Recent Cases Underpayment has hit the headlines recently as George Calombaris has been ordered to pay a fine of $200,000 for the underpayment of $7.8 million. The penalty of $200,000 has been labelled as inadequate by…
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A recent decision by the Fair Work Commission (‘FWC’) found that a former Foodora rider was an employee rather than an independent contractor as purported by the delivery platform and therefore entitled to unfair dismissal protection. The decision of Joshua Klooger v Foodora Australia Pty Ltd could have far-reaching impact for other gig economy companies…
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We recently acted for a Not For Profit organisation in a Fair Work Commission dispute. There was an issue related to the payment of an Employment Termination Payment (‘ETP’) to the terminated employee, namely whether ETPs can be salary sacrificed? Salary Sacrifice Arrangement A salary sacrifice arrangement (‘SSA’) or salary packaging or total remuneration packaging…
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We are delighted to announce that Adren Choon and Reshma Farrer have been admitted to practice as solicitors at the Supreme Court of Victoria. Lewis Holdway Principals, Natalie Fielding, Paul Holdway and John Wardlaw, said it was exciting for the firm to witness and facilitate the development of Adren and Reshma after both completing combined Bachelor…
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What happens when an employee wants to change their hours due to study commitments? What happens if your employer cannot make reasonable adjustments to grant the request? The recent decision of Hoult v Belgravia Health and Leisure is a timely reminder to all employers that requests to reduce hours by employees don’t have to be…
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A recent decision of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has raised serious questions regarding how leave should be calculated. In short, the Full Bench of the FWC decided that a shift workers leave should be calculated based on the hours worked in a shift and not based on standardised hours of 7.6 per day. For…
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The recent case of Vai v Aldi Stores is a warning to employees that after-hours misbehaviour can lead to termination of employment. In this case, Vai threw a glass of beer over the heads of colleagues at a staff Christmas party. This incident occurred after the employee had been counselled by managers to settle down…
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In the recent appeal decision of Miller v Urban Pedaler [2018] FWCFB 4166, the Fair Work Commission has sent a stark warning to all employers that raising performance issues and informing an employee that they are at risk of losing their employment must be dealt with appropriately. Background of Case In this case the Employer…
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The decision of FWO v Noorpreet Pty Ltd is a decision that should put all employers on alert in relation to paid parental leave. The case was a prosecution undertaken by the Fair Work Ombudsman after an employer failed to pay an employee her government parental leave entitlements for more then five months. The employer…
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The recent decision of Cachia v Scobel is a timely reminder that sacking an employee should be done in person. In this case the employer had followed the Small Business Code to conduct the process of termination, but when it came time to notify the employee that their employment was terminated they did so by…
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