Your HR System and Smarts for SME Success
The Decision The decision of Butterworths v Independence Australia Services concerned an employee, Ms Butterworth, who had worked as a Customer Services Officer at Independence Australia Services (IAS) from 2007 to 2013. The employee suffered from fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, a neck and shoulder injury and anxiety and depression, which required her to be returned […]
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Managing parental leave and return to work transitions presents several challenges to employers regarding their legal obligations to employees, costs associated with the transition and management of other employees to ensure minimal disruption to workplace output. These challenges affect key areas that are managed by human resources professionals and company directors. Parental Leave Discrimination Pregnancy […]
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The recent decision of Lion Dairy and Drinks Milk Limited v Peter Norman highlights that employers have the right to direct workers to be independently assessed by medical professionals of their choosing, for the purpose of fulfilling OH&S requirements, and determining whether termination is necessary. In February 2014, the worker was injured in a skydiving […]
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Life is rarely a walk in the park for the founder of any business, but for small business owners the day to day can be particularly stressful. SMB owners are often sole traders who don’t have a cofounder or other pros joining to take on various admin tasks as their team grows. While in some […]
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The Full Federal Court has upheld the dismissal of an employee who was terminated for using sick leave when his application for annual leave was declined. The employee was sacked after he took sick leave on the days for which he had initially requested to take annual leave. The request for annual leave was declined […]
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In a recent case, the Federal Circuit Court held that despite a lack of profitability, the employer took adverse action against an employee on parental leave when they failed to return her to her pre-parental leave position and brought forward her redundancy. Heraud v Roy Morgan Research Ltd [2016] The employee was an Operations Director […]
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A staff Christmas party went horribly wrong for one employee in 2014. All staff were notified of the party location – at a hired venue – and the hours for attendance, 6pm until 10pm. All pretty straight forward. But… During the official event the employee became intoxicated and proceeded to tell senior managers to “f**k […]
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Compass Group is a labour hire company who provided labour to the Department of Defence under various contracts for stores and transport services, as well as fire and rescue services, between 2005 and 2014. Compass Group’s contracts were reviewed or extended a number of times during that period. In 2014, the Department changed its tender […]
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