Over five years ago, in 2015 we wrote a thought piece about the “gig economy” and where it might be headed. Given the gig economy was then only emerging as a part of the broader economy, the impacts, positive and negative, were not yet known. However, we observed that there was potential for workers and
The Prime Minister has recently made an announcement about the process of “re-opening” the Australian economy, and a critical part of that being retraining and investment in skills development. Chris Gardner has also touched on the importance of HR in a crisis. This gave us reason to ask whether, even though some employers are going
We work with human resources professionals everyday, and at all levels.
They have been at the forefront of dealing with the most dramatic change of our time felt directly in the workplace.
Overnight, most employers have had to confront not only change but the question of how growth, if not survival will look from here.
As you will recall, the view of many is that enterprise bargaining in Australia has run its course. Essentially the view is that there’s little incentive for an employer to bargain (beyond avoiding harm to the business through a tumultuous bargaining campaign) nor for employees who, for some time, have only managed to extract very
The line between lawful and unlawful unpaid work is not always clear.
Many companies are contacted by people offering to work on a voluntary basis. It is often pitched as a “win-win” because the person is willing to work for free in exchange for experience and contacts, particularly in high demand industries such as sports,
When an ex-employee goes to a competitor or starts poaching clients or staff, employers often look to a restraint of trade clause to protect key business assets such as client relationships or company confidential information.
Often a quick decision needs to be made: apply to the Court to stop the ex-employee, or wait and sue
Lots has been said recently in the press about enterprise agreement making and the approval process by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). In short, the numbers of agreements being made is down and approval times are “long”. The graph below, recently cited in an AFR article, demonstrates a possible link between approval times slowing and
An enforceable restraint of trade can be a key business asset, giving an employer time to recover when a senior employee has left the business for a competitor. Like a good insurance policy, it’s a big relief to have it when you need it.
Australian law regarding restraints of trade has its history in
In a previous blog, we’ve mentioned the decline of enterprise bargaining in Australia.
Some data to support this follows in this blog. Both agreement numbers and employees covered by in-term agreements are in decline. Point 7 and 8 highlight the challenges faced by parties making agreements and the Fair Work Commission in processing agreement
So what’s the outlook for enterprise bargaining in Australia? Here’s the top 7: