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Termination by labour hire after placement terminated the contract held not to be unfair
The Fair Work Commission (the Commission) recently found that a labour hire employer did not unfairly dismiss an employee when its principal (the host employer) advised the labour hire employer it no longer wanted the services of the employee at their site. Background The facts are straight forward and uncontroversial. The employee was involved in a near miss incident and as a result, the host employer exercised its rights under the contract with the labour hire employer to not have that employee return to their premises. The labour hire employer did not investigate the incident and indeed had the view that the incident did not warrant the response of the host employer. Nevertheless, the labour hire employer agreed to remove the employee from the site and endeavoured to find an alternative placement for the employee but none was available. As a result, the employee's position was terminated. At first instance<...
5 October 2016Fair Work Commission Makes Changes to Annual Leave Provisions in Modern Awards
In July 2016, as a part of the four yearly review of modern awards, the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) introduced a number of new provisions in relation to annual leave across a majority of modern awards. These new provisions relate to taking annual leave in advance, excessive annual leave accruals, cashing out of annual leave. Annual leave in advance The new provision enables an employer and employee to agree in writing to take a period of annual leave in advance of accrual. A pro-forma written agreement has been included as a schedule to the modern awards. Importantly, an employer will now be able to deduct from the monies due to an employee upon termination the amount of advance leave which has not been accrued. Excessive leave accruals Under this provision, where an employee has accrued more than eight (8) weeks paid annual leave, an employer can direct an employee to...
5 October 2016Unfair dismissal threshold increase from 1 July 2016
Introduction New rates, thresholds and other changes in the employment arena commence from 1 July 2016. The following article briefly summarises the main amendments that employers should be aware of. Unfair dismissal threshold (high income threshold) and maximum compensation cap The high income threshold will increase from the current $136,700 to $138,900 from 1 July 2016. This means employees whose annual rate of earnings is $138,900 (which excludes statutory superannuation) or more and who are not covered by an award or enterprise agreement, are unable to pursue an unfair dismissal application. The change also means that the maximum compensation that can be awarded for an unfair dismissal claim is $69,450. National minimum wage From 1 July 2016, the national minimum wage will increase to $672.70 per week or $17.70 per hour (calculated on the basis of a 3...
27 June 2016