Employment
Employment Law Series: Ending Employment – Performance Management
The most common reason for an employer wanting to terminate an employee’s contract is underperformance. Managing this process carefully is required given the complexities and differences surrounding each employment relationship. You need to ensure the employee is treated fairly and minimize any adverse repercussions on any business. It is important to understand that underperformance and …
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Employment Law Series: Ending Employment – Abandonment of Employment
Employers need to be careful when considering whether abandonment of employment has occurred and terminating the employment contract. Abandonment cannot be determined strictly based upon the contractual position. But does include a detailed consideration of all the facts (not including the parties’ subjective beliefs or the reasonableness of the parties’ conduct). The wrong determination on …
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Employment Law Series: Ending Employment – Resignations
The most common form of employment separation is where an employee provides an employer with Notice of their intention to end the employment relationship. This is usually consensual and the key consideration is normally whether sufficient Notice has been provided. Notice The required Notice can be set out in an enterprise agreement, employment agreement or …
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I spy, with my little eye… an employer who requires a workplace surveillance policy
It is becoming increasingly common for employers to monitor their employees whilst in the workplace, and when using employer devices. Although Australia does not currently have uniform laws governing the surveillance of employees, in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales, there are specific regulations which dictate what an employer must do before conducting …
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Griffin Legal Sessions: Employee Termination and Risk Management
Terminating an employee can be difficult to manage and there can be many risk factors involved that you may not have considered. From adverse action claims to constructive dismissal, in this insightful session, we will answer your questions and discuss methods to avoid the risks associated with terminating an employee. The session is led by …
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New Year’s Resolutions for your organisation and the law ahead for 2018
Welcome to 2018! It is set to be another interesting year ahead, as the Australian Open kicks off this week, we head towards the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, we see the 2018 Commonwealth Games hosted in the Gold Coast, and we await the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It’s also the year …
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Do you have to act on reports of sexual harassment if no formal complaint is made?
Often it is the case that victims of sexual harassment don’t feel comfortable reporting incidents of sexual harassment. As a result, the victim and the perpetrator may merely remain the subject of office gossip. This is not a healthy situation for employees, or indeed as we have seen in the news recently, the organisation’s culture. …
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Can you control what your employees post on social media?
The boundaries between public life and private life, specifically in relation to the workplace and the home, have become porous. And the question for many organisations is whether they can control what their employees post on social media. The answer, like most legal answers, is that it depends on the circumstances and more particularly what …
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Canberra’s New Reportable Conduct Scheme – child protection obligations in the employment space
The new Reportable Conduct Scheme is now effective in Canberra, as of 1 July 2017. The ACT government passed legislation introducing the Scheme subsequent to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Scheme is designed to ensure that allegations concerning child protection are identified, reported and acted on appropriately, at an …
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AFP workforce says “NO”
Yesterday, AFP employees delivered a clear message to the AFP Executive that they will not accept the Enterprise Agreement being offered by the AFP. 87.2% of employees cast a vote, and of those 80.88% voted no, meaning that only 19.12% voted yes. To set the scene, the circumstances leading into the vote were as follows: …
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