1 July here we come - what you need to know

Earlier this month, we published an update in respect of the outcome of the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review and impending superannuation guarantee changes.

Whilst these are no doubt the most significant of the upcoming changes for employers to be aware of, 1 July presents additional further considerations for business in the people space.

The additional changes that are likely to matter most to employers are set out in this further blog post.

1 July 2022 – Annual Wage Review Outcome

After another period of significant change for business in the employment law space, it is now time to prepare for changes coming in the 2022/23 financial year.

The most significant of these changes arises from the Fair Work Commission (FWC)’s recent annual wage review, a decision that will impact employers and employees against rising inflationary and cost of living pressures.

For the first time since the annual review decision in 2010/11, the FWC has moved away from a uniform percentage wage increase and implemented a 2-tier wage increase methodology to provide more significant percentage increases to lower paid employees.

The Workplace Ill and Injured Blog Series Part II: How to assess employee medical information, including dealing with conflicting opinions

In Part I of this series, we explored when an employer can request medical information from an employee or ask them to attend an independent medical examination.

In this second instalment of our 3-part series, we consider how employers should assess information about an employee’s fitness for work, including dealing with conflicting opinions between medical practitioners.

The Workplace Ill and Injured Blog Series Part 1: When can you request medical information from an employee or ask them to attend an independent medical examination?

In the last quarter of 2019, The Workplace is shining a spotlight on managing ill and injured workers.

This blog is the first of a three-part series into some of the firm’s most frequently asked questions.

In this first instalment, we explore the above question which, unsurprisingly, does not always have a simple answer.

Taking a day off? How taking a sick day just got a whole lot more complicated.

A day is a day, isn’t it?  As the Full Bench of the Federal Court has recently found, the answer to the question is surprisingly complex.

In Mondelez v AMWU, the court was asked to consider the meaning of the word “day” in relation to the NES entitlement to 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave.

The matter related to 12-hour shift workers at Mondelez’s Cadbury plant in Tasmania but has broad reaching implications for employers of shift workers and employees working condensed hours over less than 5 days per week.

“I didn’t say that!” – when to audio record interviews in workplace investigations

Have you recently become aware of complaints of inappropriate behaviour or conduct in the workplace?  Are you preparing to embark on a workplace investigation into the complaints?

Well-run interviews are critical to the vast majority of investigations, to determine what the complainant, respondent and witnesses saw and heard.

It is therefore unsurprising that we are often asked the question: should we audio-record interviews or instead make a written contemporaneous record of what is said?