The definitive guide to employee classification levels

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal One of the most common questions we are asked on the NRA’s...

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal One of the most common questions we are asked on the NRA’s workplace relations hotline is how to correctly classify employees. In most cases, this is a fairly straight forward exercise, and it’s an important skill for business owners to develop. However, like...

Read More

Transgender inclusion in the workplace

By Thomas Parer and Alex Millman, NRA Legal Seven years ago, on 1 August 2013, it became unlawful across all...

By Thomas Parer and Alex Millman, NRA Legal Seven years ago, on 1 August 2013, it became unlawful across all of Australia to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. This change was the result of decades of work...

Read More

High Court confirms status quo on personal leave

By Thomas Parer and Alex Millman, NRA Legal On 13 August 2020, the High Court of Australia delivered its eagerly-awaited...

By Thomas Parer and Alex Millman, NRA Legal On 13 August 2020, the High Court of Australia delivered its eagerly-awaited judgment in the case Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd v Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union HCA 29 (Mondelez v AMWU). The matter dealt with the interpretation...

Read More

Redundancy: A question of intent

Redundancy: A question of intent By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The concept of redundancy is a reasonably straightforward...

Redundancy: A question of intent By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The concept of redundancy is a reasonably straightforward one – the employer no longer requires the particular job occupied by an individual to be done by anyone. Case closed. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) modifies this...

Read More

Jail sentence and record fine against reckless employer sets benchmark for WHS prosecutions

Written by Zoe Brodie and Lindsay Carroll. In the first charge of reckless conduct to be successfully tried under...

Written by Zoe Brodie and Lindsay Carroll. In the first charge of reckless conduct to be successfully tried under the harmonised work health and safety legislation, a director of a Queensland roofing company has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for his contribution to the fatality of a 62-year-old...

Read More

Have your say: How can we unite the small business sector?

An alliance of small business organisations has been formed to present a united front on policy issues of mutual...

An alliance of small business organisations has been formed to present a united front on policy issues of mutual interest. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO), Kate Carnell, says the group will be making joint submissions on the Federal Budget and other consultations, in the interest of...

Read More

Message from the CEO: Monday, May 9

Last week, we commended Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison for recognising the important role small to medium businesses play when...

Last week, we commended Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison for recognising the important role small to medium businesses play when it comes to creating jobs for Australians into the future. Given the high proportion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the retail sector, the proposed business tax cuts outlined in...

Read More

Message from the CEO: 18 March 2016

Much has been made of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ figures showing the nation’s unemployment rate fell from 6...

Much has been made of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ figures showing the nation’s unemployment rate fell from 6 to 5.8 per cent in February (released Thursday), but the unemployment rate doesn’t specifically tend to affect retailers, the number of job vacancies is far more significant, because labour demand...

Read More

Fire safety workshops for Queensland small businesses

The Office of Industrial Relations, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland are running free workshops to cover a range of...

The Office of Industrial Relations, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland are running free workshops to cover a range of work health and safety topics, including: • Basic safety management system • Risk management • Safe work procedures • Safe work method statements (for high risk construction work) • Basic risk management for manual tasks • Incident and emergency response • Hazardous chemicals • Health and...

Read More

Distress and humiliation suffered after adverse action

The Federal Circuit Court has found The Monitoring Centre (TMC) took adverse action against their general manager who had...

The Federal Circuit Court has found The Monitoring Centre (TMC) took adverse action against their general manager who had made a workplace complaint when the company asked employees to provide negative feedback about the general manager and ultimately used this feedback to terminate her. The former employee made a formal...

Read More

Message from the CEO: 15 January 2016

The jobs figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics were very welcome news for the economy, and...

The jobs figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics were very welcome news for the economy, and for the retail sector. The ABS reported that 312,000 more Australians were in work in December compared with the same time 12 months ago, with most of those people finding full-time...

Read More

Message from the CEO: 16th October 2015

Analysts were saying that the next move in interest rates would be upwards and we saw evidence of that...

Analysts were saying that the next move in interest rates would be upwards and we saw evidence of that this week – not from the Reserve Bank, but from Westpac, which announced a 0.2 per cent increase in its variable rate mortgage. It’s not the first bank to nudge...

Read More