Staying abreast of Australia’s dynamic employment law landscape is essential for businesses to ensure compliance and avoid common pitfalls.
Andrew Jewell, Principal Lawyer at Jewell Hancock Employment Lawyers, provides insights on how businesses can navigate these complexities and remain updated on statutory obligations. To keep up with changes, both the Commonwealth and State governments release press releases regarding new legislation. Being attuned to announcements through media and official channels is crucial. Reliable information can also be sourced from authoritative public bodies such as the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman, and state and commonwealth anti-discrimination commissions, which regularly publish relevant materials.
To stay on top of announcements effectively, subscribing to services like Workplace Express is recommended, providing a streamlined way to access pertinent updates. Additionally, legal firms actively analyse announcements and offer comprehensive insights, making articles penned by experts in the field a valuable resource.
According to data from employment expert SEEK, The top 5 legal concerns identified by Australian employers were:
- Leave requests (parental, sickness, carer)
- Firing employees
- Keeping up with/adhering to statutory obligations
- Salary & compensation
- Interview questions
Essential considerations for key legal concerns
Navigating employment-related legal concerns demands a keen understanding of recent statutory obligations. Andrew Jewell outlines crucial insights into several pressing issues:
Leave requests
Different leave types, from annual leave to parental leave, require specific considerations. Consultations with the Fair Work Ombudsman and law firm publications are excellent starting points. Leave requests can only be rejected in limited circumstances so employers need to be aware of the requirements for doing so. For example, an annual leave request may be rejected where the seasonal nature of the work doesn’t allow it, such as an accountant around tax time or where other employees are already on leave. However, the taking of personal leave (either sick or carer’s leave) cannot be refused where there is relevant evidence in the form of a medical certificate or statutory declaration.
Firing employees
While there are a lot of considerations that go into a dismissal, the most important would be unfair dismissal. To best protect themselves employers should ensure they have a valid reason for dismissal (and if that reason is performance, that a reasonable performance process has been followed) and there has been a procedurally fair process that has provided the employee with a reasonable opportunity to respond. Employers also need to be aware of discrimination and victimisation considerations and can look to state and commonwealth anti-discrimination commissions for guidance. In short, employers need to avoid unlawful considerations, such as pregnancy or age, and the best way to achieve this is to explain the legal reason for the dismissal (and, as above, follow a fair process).
Interview Questions
Issues with interview questions generally fall under discrimination considerations, so employers need to avoid asking questions about any protected attribute, such as age or family responsibilities. For example, employers should not ask employees’ age as this would imply age is a factor in recruitment, which is generally not lawful. The exception is where the employer is asking questions about an employee’s ability to perform the role – for example in a physical role an employer could ask about any factor which would prevent the performance of that role.
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