The Federal Court has allowed a disgruntled ex-employee to seek access to a report in an adverse action case, casting doubt on the rights employers have to keep documentation private under legal professional privilege.
With an increasing number of executives disputing dismissal decisions via the Fair Work Act's adverse action provisions, rigorous termination processes have never been more important, according to employment lawyer Murray Procter.
The Fair Work Commission has delivered an important decision on the rights of employers faced with uninformative medical certificates covering sick leave.
Confusion about how long an organisation should retain a sick or injured employee who's unable to work could be stopping many employers from lawfully terminating absent staff, according to lawyers from Hicksons' workplace relations group.
Nothing unsettles staff quite like the word "redundancy", but according to lawyer Natalie Spark, avoiding it and skirting around the issue can do more harm than good.
The Fair Work Act's bullying amendments will make it more difficult for employers to address performance issues at work, according to Maddocks partner, Ross Jackson.
What does a best-practice process for managing difficult employees look like? Watch this webcast to understand your rights and responsibilities when managing performance and conduct issues.
The presentation covers:
what constitutes a "challenging employee"?
how to distinguish between performance and conduct issues;
the costs of poor management of difficult employees;
an overview of legal risks;
what good performance management looks like;
"best practice" strategies and tools;
case studies of management of difficult employees;
a process for managing challenging employees;
fair and lawful termination of challenging employees; and more.
The Federal Court has warned employers against using redundancy "as a pretext for getting rid of an undesired employee" after a university failed to examine a head of school's true motives for proposing an academic's retrenchment.
Initial concerns about the impact on employers of the Fair Work Act's adverse action provisions have proven to be unfounded, but employers should expect to face more claims now that case law has clarified the way it operates, says employment lawyer Amanda Harvey.
The laws around engaging casual and contract workers have changed drastically this year. Understand how this affects your organisation by attending this HR Daily webinar.
From August, employees will have a legislated right to disconnect from work. Understand what this means for your organisation by watching this HR Daily Premium webcast.
