In light of recent legislative changes in the United Kingdom, from 26 October 2024, UK employers have a new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of workers in the course of their employment.
This caused us to reflect on the key lessons that can be drawn from Australia’s experience with very similar
The last several months have seen rapid changes in the employment and workplace health and safety space. With such dynamic movement, and then lots of commentary on each of these changes, it’s easy to view all these changes as one big jumble of puzzle pieces. And it can be hard to know what the whole
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
Seyfarth just celebrated ten years of service to leading employers in Australia. To mark the occasion, we invited some of our partners to share insights on the evolution of employment, industrial relations and workplace safety in Australia over the past ten years.
What have been the biggest changes in employment law, industrial relations and workplace
If it’s not already happening, Board room agendas will be making room for yet another compliance program.
We’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating: the bolstering of anti-sexual harassment laws will see workplaces adopt approaches akin to eliminating or minimising, so far as reasonably practicable, workplace health and safety risk. The positive duty demands
Already stretched HR, ER, WHS and Legal teams are about to confront a (seemingly) never-ending stream of law changes that will require cross-team collaboration to operationalise.
At a time when there are already broader economic and market challenges for businesses, leading employers will need to have sufficient resourcing and planning to confront the
We have psychosocial risks, of which sexual harassment is one of the most common hazards. We have a new positive duty to prevent sexual harassment at a federal level that we discussed in our previous blog. The duties are at least similar: “So far as is reasonably practicable’’ under health and safety law and
Psychosocial risk is number one on the agenda for many Australian workplace leaders. Right now, most safety briefings requested of us are on this very topic. And with good reason. The common refrain from employers is ‘what do we need to do?’
We wrote recently:
Gone are the days when workplace safety belongs only in
Gone are the days when workplace safety belongs only in factories and mines. In 2023 criminal charges can and will be brought in relation to hazards and their associated risks that traverse every industry, every workplace and cannot be seen by the naked eye. Caution signs will not “cut the mustard”.
Born originally from the
This year, the campaign theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity. This theme encourages people to acknowledge and understand that providing equal opportunities is not enough to achieve inclusivity. This is because equality-based solutions assume a level playing field––the same resources are allocated to all, disregarding the fact that those at a disadvantage will remain