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Significant Changes to Workers Compensation Pass Through Parliament...
The Workers’ Compensation Legislation Amendment Act 2012 (the Act) which passed through the NSW Parliament on 27 June 2012 makes a number of significant changes to the NSW workers’ compensation scheme. The changes will affect all new and existing workers compensation claims with the exception of: police officers, paramedics, fire-fighters and emergency service volunteers (RFS, Surf Life Savers and SES volunteers); workers injured while in or around a coal mine; and dust disease claims. The following article summarises the major changes and transitional arrangements. Compensable Injuries Compensation will not be payable for: heart attacks, strokes and their underlying diseases unless the nature of the employment exposed the worker to significantly greater risk of suffering the injury; for disease injuries (including aggravations, accelerations, exacerbations or dete...
17 July 2012Sham Contracting – Employer and Director Fined
In a recent decision, the Federal Court of Australia has imposed significant fines against an employer and one of its Directors due to it engaging in “sham contracting” arrangements. This provides further confirmation of the strict approach and penalties the Court is willing to impose on employers engaging in sham contracting arrangements. Background The employer, Maclean Bay Pty Ltd (Maclean) operated, amongst other resorts in Australia, a tourist resort on the East coast of Tasmania (the Resort). Approximately 13 personnel were employed at the Resort. During the months leading up to the contraventions, Ms Wells, a director of Maclean, advised Ms Robinson – General Manager of the Resort, that she wanted to terminate the Resort’s employees and make them independent contractors, similar to the other sites that she was responsible for. She sought to do this to avoid making payments of superann...
6 July 2012Fair Work System - No Cost Jurisdiction – or is it?
Applications under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) have traditionally been considered as a “no cost jurisdiction” where parties, in most circumstances, bear their own costs. An order for costs is often difficult to achieve as the applying party needs to demonstrate the other party acted unreasonably. Two recent cases under two different sections of the Act as outlined below, indicate the threshold requirements for successfully seeking costs may be lowering. Dickason v Endeavour Industries Pty Ltd and ors Background In January 2012, Mr Dickason lodged a general protections application against his former employer, Endeavour Industries Pty Ltd (Endeavour). The matter was listed for conference on 20 February 2012 before Fair Work Australia (FWA). Mr Dickason attended the conference but Endeavour failed to attend. It was subsequently determined that Endeavour failed...
6 July 2012