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Ignoring employee complaints of inappropriate behaviour proves costly!
An employer's failure to appropriately respond to an employee's complaints regarding inappropriate behaviour has proved costly with an award of $1.3 million in damages being made against it. Background Ms Mathews was engaged by Winslow Constructors (Vic) Pty Ltd (Winslow) as a labourer in about August 2008. During her employment, Ms Mathews was subject to repeated and frequent inappropriate conduct including sexual harassment, bullying and abusive behaviour by fellow employees and subcontractors. Ms Mathews was initially reluctant to lodge a complaint regarding the conduct given her immediate foreman was responsible for some of the inappropriate conduct. When Ms Mathews complained to the area site manager, he would respond with words to the effect of 'leave it with me'. In September 2009, Ms Mathews was transferred to another crew and the inappropriate behaviour ceased, until June 201...
5 February 2016Fair Work Act Amendments
Originally introduced to Parliament on 27 February 2014, the Fair Work Amendment Act 2015 (the Amending Act) came into effect on 27 November 2015 in a somewhat 'diluted' form to the original Bill proposed by the then Minister for Employment, Eric Abetz. The following table summarises the main amendments as passed. Subject Amendments Greenfield Agreements When negotiating greenfield agreements, a union is a bargaining representative only if it is entitled to represent the interests of one or more employees covered by the proposed agreement and the employer has agreed to bargain with the union. This means an employer may potentially choose to negotiate with only one union in relation to coverage and not others. Good faith bargaining rules will now also apply to greenfield agreements. The Bill introduc...
5 February 2016Don't rush to terminate an employee during their probation period
It's a common misconception that terminating an employee's employment during a probation period provides employers with immunity against any subsequent legal claims by the terminated employee. While, in general, this will apply for unfair dismissal claims, as the following case demonstrates, employers may be exposed to other claims, for instance a general protections claim, where hasty decisions to terminate are made. BACKGROUND Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act), an employee is protected from an unfair dismissal if they have been employed for at least the "minimum employment period". The minimum employment period is one year for small business employers (employers with 14 or less employees) or six months for employers with 15 or more employees. The minimum employment period applies regardless of any probationary period which may be stipulated in the employee...
10 November 2015