Legal

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal After part-time employment, reasonable additional hours is one the most commonly misunderstood concepts for employers in the retail and quick service industries. In fact, even the question “how many additional hours would be considered reasonable?” betrays a misapprehension of the topic, as the...

By Lucy Harper, NRA Legal In response to recent reports in retail stores of children being seriously injured on shopping hooks, the National Retail Association takes this opportunity to highlight some practical tips for improving safety standards in relation to display fixture hooks. To protect customers and employees from injury, the...

On 30 May 2019, the Fair Work Commission handed down its decision on the Annual Wage Review, deciding to award an increase to minimum wages of 3%. This will take effect from the first pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019. While still higher than advocated for by...

By Zoe Brodie and Calum Woods, NRA Legal What category you choose to employ someone under (full-time, part-time or casual) has more implications than simply a cost analysis of annual/sick leave or casual loading. There’s more to think about than whether to trade job security for the ability to readily downsize...

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The Fair Work Commission (per Deputy President Anderson) stated recently that a workplace investigation “is not a court of law or a quasi-judicial proceeding. It is an internal disciplinary process guided by the principle of fairness.” There are of course a number of...

    For years now, the future of time and attendance was looking to be fingerprint scanners. The recent decision of the Fair Work Commission in Lee v Superior Wood Pty Ltd FWCFB 2946 has called that future into question. Join lawyers Alex Millman and Calum Woods as they discuss...

By Zoe Brodie and Lucy Harper, NRA Legal With the Corporations Amendment (Strengthening Protections for Employee Entitlements) Act 2018 (Cth) (the Amendment Act) taking effect last month, now is an apt time to reflect on how officers of a company are subject to hefty penalties for failing to pay employee...

By Lucy Harper, Associate and Lindsay Carroll, Deputy CEO and Legal Practice Director The National Retail Association recently facilitated its inaugural Enterprise Agreement Stakeholder Panel (EASP) meeting. The EASP is a forum for members to facilitate discussion and learning about enterprise bargaining and build industry insights into the current state...

By Lucy Coogan and Zoe Brodie, NRA Legal The nature of retail means that public holiday requirements can be quite complex. This year, a late Easter means up to five public holidays will fall in the space of a week, raising questions as to employee entitlements, attendance, and trading hours during...

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal Late last year, the media introduced us to Angela Williamson, an employee of Cricket Australia allegedly sacked after she posted on Twitter criticising the Tasmanian Government’s policy on abortion laws. Ms Williamson subsequently filed an application with the Fair Work Commission, arguing that...

By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal With the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FW Act) nearing its tenth anniversary in April, now is an apt time to reflect on how the landscape of industrial law has changed both because of the Act, and because of changes to...

By Alex Millman and Victoria Hansen, NRA Legal Workers’ compensation legislation can be complicated and confusing, even to experts, and the recent Queensland case of Mandep Sarkaria v Workers’ Compensation Regulator ICQ 001 aptly demonstrates just how technically bewildering this legislation can be. In this case, the Industrial Court of...

By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The Australian Labor Party’s 48th Annual Conference was held in mid-December 2018, a significant event which determined the key elements of Labor policy heading towards this year’s Federal election. A 225-page national platform was put to, and adopted by, the Labor caucus, although...