In our previous post celebrating the firm’s decade in Australia, our partners shared their insights into the most significant changes in employment and safety law that have affected leading employers. This post further explores our partners’ perspectives on the major changes and trends that they anticipate will have a major impact on Australian businesses in
Workplace policy and process
The demise of labour hire – the problem, policy and politics
In his press club speech on 31 August 2023, just days before the public release of the Closing Loopholes Bill, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations the Hon Tony Burke MP described the problem of the labour hire loophole as follows:
“But if you have an enterprise agreement in place, the labour hire loophole…
Looking to cut costs? Who you gonna call?
So, the business needs to cut costs. It might want to outsource. Redundancies look inevitable. But you need to be sure: so here comes a high-priced management consultant.
Things are getting expensive. Everything is on the table. There’s an enterprise agreement or two driving costs. You could get maintenance cheaper elsewhere. Or how about the…
Is the Qantas v TWU decision the death knell for outsourcing?
The High Court of Australia’s decision in the Qantas outsourcing case[1] has been widely reported. But both the scope of the decision and the key takeaway have potentially been misunderstood.
How do you (dis)prove a negative presumption about your reasons?
The real issue in this case, as in most adverse action cases, was why…
Closing loopholes or throwing lifelines…
This instalment of our series on the Closing Loopholes Bill considers new measures aimed squarely at union empowerment.
The Bill mandates rights for union workplace delegates that must be included in all Modern Awards and future enterprise agreements. As a minimum, these rights will be to:
- represent members and non-members who are eligible to join
Navigating the new world of work: Is contracting on the way out?
The use of contracting arrangements is widespread; however, around the world, we are seeing trends suggesting this type of work arrangement may become more restricted, higher cost or higher risk to companies in the future. We asked several partners to share their insights on what’s changing for companies that use contractors and what the key…
Closing loopholes or creating a noose?
Anything but casual…
In the first of our series examining the Closing Loopholes Bill introduced into Parliament yesterday, we look at the new measures for casual employment.
The Orwellian title of the Closing Loopholes Bill foreshadows its intentions: casual employment is double-plus-ungood. Premised on the doublethink notion that casual employment is a bad moon on…
Labor’s changes to labour strategy
Some of this is guesswork, and the extent of what’s coming is uncertain, but:
APAC reductions in force blog series – top 10 things to look out for (Part 4)
In part three of our four-part series on Reductions in Force in Asia Pacific, we looked at severance costs and benefits, key timing challenges and consultation with employees or employee representatives.
In this final instalment of our series, we’ll cover the last three things that we recommend multinational employers consider: (#8) consideration of expats, (#9)…
Navigating global religious accommodation: insights from our lawyers on employer responsibilities towards religious beliefs in the workforce
In a previous blog, we summarised the recent case of Groff v. Dejoy, where the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously clarified the undue hardship standard under Title VII, a federal law in the United States that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, and national origin.
The decision is in line with…