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New Fair Work Information Statement
On 1 July 2015, the Fair Work Ombudsman released and updated the Fair Work Information Statement. The Fair Work Information Statement provides information on various minimum employment rights such as the National Employment Standards, flexible working arrangements, modern awards and agreement making. Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), all employers are obligated to provide employees with a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement as soon as possible after the commencement of employment. It can be provided in advance of the employment. Employers should ensure that they are providing the most up to date version of the Fair Work Information Statement. Employers can also access the Fair Work Information Statement translated into 27 different languages for their ESL employees on the Fair Work Ombudsman website by clicking [here]. If you would like to know more about this article, please contact National Workplace Lawyers on +61 9233 3989. National Workp...
13 July 2015Redundant employee awarded discretionary bonus
A recent Federal Circuit Court decision provides a timely reminder that if employers intend to withhold discretionary employee bonuses they should be sure the decision to withhold the bonus is not capricious. Background On 15 May 2009, the employee entered into a contract of employment (the Contract) with Westpac. The Contract provided that "… eligibility to be considered for the payment of any invariable reward or incentive payment is at the absolute discretion of Westpac." The Contract contained a 'Policy' clause which named several specific policies but also provided that these policies did not form part of the Contract. The redundancy policy was not listed in the Policy clause. Later in May 2009, the employee agreed to participate in Westpac's bonus plan. The bonus plan's guidelines and rules specified eligibility criteria and the rules for managers in assessing a...
7 July 2015Timely reminder on notices of representational rights
A Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has overturned the approval of Harbour City Maritime Agreement 2014 as the notice of representational rights (the NERR) provided to employees by Harbour City Ferries Pty Ltd (the Employer) departed from the strict wording and content requirements set out in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act). The Act requires employers, within 14 days of commencing bargaining for an enterprise agreement, to take all reasonable steps to provide employees who will be covered by a proposed enterprise agreement with a NERR. The Act requires the NERR to: contain the content prescribed by the regulations; not contain any other content; be in the form prescribed by the regulations; and provide details regarding the appointment of a bargaining representative. The regulations provide a pro-forma version of the NERR which contain certain fields which to be populated by the employer. In this matter,...
7 July 2015