Proposed Changes to Clerks Award – COVID-19
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Australian Industry Group are the latest to file an application with the Fair Work Commission to allow flexibility in the Clerks Award during the COVID-19 pandemic, to preserve businesses and jobs. The Australian Services Union and Australian Council of Trade Unions have negotiated over the past week […]
You can now watch online! Can Employees Be Stood Down
Due to social distancing, WR Law has had to cancel all of its seminars planned for the upcoming months. We still want to keep in contact with you, so you can now watch our videos online, the first being very relevant to our current circumstances ‘Can Employees Be Stood Down’. We understand that both Employers […]
COVID-19 Change to Hospitality (General) Award 2010
The Fair Work Commission has made an application to vary or revoke the Hospitality Industry General Award 2010 under the Fair Work Act 2009 from March 24th 2020 to 30th June 2020, there is flexibility to extend this date. These changes include flexibility on classification of duties, hours of work for full time and part […]
Wage Theft Bill Passed
The Victorian Government has proceeded with the Wage Theft Bill, introducing new laws making it a criminal offence for deliberate underpayment of employees. The criminal offences stated under the Bill include Employers who dishonestly withhold wages, superannuation or other employee entitlements, who falsify employee entitlements, such as payroll records, or who dishonestly fail to keep […]
State and Federal Government Announcements on COVID-19
The Victorian Government announced that it will proceed to implement a shutdown of all non-essential activity across our state to combat the spread of Coronavirus by midday. Essential services have currently been defined as supermarkets, banks, pharmacies and other essential services including petrol stations and convenience stores. Freight, logisitics and home delivery will also remain […]
Annualised Wage Arrangements
In late January we shared an article advising of upcoming changes to a number of awards and ongoing rollouts to changes in awards. On 12 February 2020, the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) added new rules and changed the existing rules about annualised wage arrangements (also known as annual wage arrangements) to a number of awards […]
Update on Coronavirus and Australian workplace laws
With the continued spread of Coronavirus workplaces and employees are being impacted like never before and need to understand their workplace obligations and entitlements. As of the 19th of March, there are now 565 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Australia, including 150 in Victoria. In addition, there have been 72 confirmed cases of human-to-human transfer […]
COVID-19 Working From Home
More and more employees are being directed to work from home as the coronavirus outbreak hits Australian workplaces. But what if an employee is injured while working at home, or doesn’t have the proper equipment to do his or her job safely? What if an employee is injured while working at home? Under all Australian […]
Victorian Government takes action on gendered violence at work
The Victorian Government have introduced new guidelines and support for employers to address the serious issue of work-related gendered violence across our workplaces. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, employers face serious consequences if they do not provide a safe working environment for employees. Employers also have obligations under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010. […]
Coronavirus & Workplace Law
With the outbreak of Coronavirus reaching Australia some workplaces and employees are being impacted and need to understand their workplace obligations and entitlements. There have been 33 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Australia, including nine in Victoria. In addition, there have been two confirmed cases of human-to-human transfer of the virus in New South Wales. […]