Katrina Murphy Industrial Relations | Local service

Katrina Murphy Industrial Relations

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24.01.2022 Employers are not permitted to make deductions from an employee’s wages (including final pay) for loss or damage to Company property (including tools, laptops and phones) or reputational damage. It is a breach of Fair Work Act to do so. Employers can take disciplinary action against an employee for such matters if the employee has no reasonable excuse for their actions.

19.01.2022 Fair Work Act has a brand new definition of casual employee in section 15A of Fair Work Act. It says: (1) A person is a casual employee of an employer if: (a) an offer of employment made by the employer to the person is made on the basis that the employer makes no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work according to an agreed pattern of work for the person; and (b) the person accepts the offer on that basis; and (c) the person is an employee as a result of t...hat acceptance. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), in determining whether, at the time the offer is made, the employer makes no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work according to an agreed pattern of work for the person, regard must be had only to the following considerations: (a) whether the employer can elect to offer work and whether the person can elect to accept or reject work; (b) whether the person will work as required according to the needs of the employer; (c) whether the employment is described as casual employment; (d) whether the person will be entitled to a casual loading or a specific rate of pay for casual employees under the terms of the offer or a fair work instrument. This is an important statutory change. It means that the documented terms of a new casual engagement are crucial, if an employer wishes to ensure that the casual status of new employees is certain. The limiting of casual status by describing it as such, can only genuinely apply to new casuals. ~ Elizabeth Richter-Cross by Natasha Lavai Perkins See more

12.01.2022 One of the perks of turning 18 in Australia (wayyyy down the list after clubbing of course) is that employers must pay superannuation (at least 9.5% of ordinary time earnings) to 18 year olds, if they are earning more than $450 in a calendar month. Before they turn 18, employees are only entitled to super if they work more than 30 hours a week. Which means they have to be pretty close to being full-time to be eligible for super. It is unclear to KMIR why young people should... not be supported to save for their retirement from the very beginning of their working lives. KMIR supports the findings of the Federal Government review into retirement incomes chaired by Mike Callaghan which recommends that the $450 a month threshold is removed and that super is paid on government-funded paid parental leave. A solid start. ~ Happy Birthday, Katie-Rose. See more

09.01.2022 Australian employees have a statutory right during or post-employment, to make a request to inspect or receive copies of their employee records such as time sheets and overtime records. The employer must comply with this request. This is because Fair Work Regulation 3.42 requires the employer to respond to such a request by either a) making the copies available at the workplace within 3 business days of the request or b) posting a copy of the employee record to the employee w...ithin 14 days after receiving a request in writing. It is the employer’s choice, not the employee’s, whether the records will be available for inspection at the workplace or posted to the employee. If the records are made available at the workplace, this must occur within 3 business days after receiving the request and the employer must also make copying facilities available. The records must also be in a legible form. It is a civil remedy offence for an employer to fail to make records available in the way prescribed by Regulation 3.42. A Fair Work Ombudsman Inspector may also require employee records to be made available for inspection and copying. See more

08.01.2022 There IS an automatic right for an employee with at least 12 months service, to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. The employer cannot refuse this. There is NO automatic right for an employee to have a longer period of unpaid parental leave approved. Fair Work Act provides a right for an employee to request up to an additional 12 months of unpaid parental leave (so up to 24 months in total) but it is only a request. Fair Work Act mandates that the employer must discuss the r...equest with the employee and respond to the request within 21 days. If the employer does not wish to approve the further period of leave, they must provide operational reasons why the request cannot be agreed to. The operational reasons to refuse a request can and should relate to the specifics of a person’s job. The fact that someone else in a different job or location with the same Company or organisation had a second instalment of 12 months parental leave does not prevent the employer from deciding that the requirements of the job of this particular employee prevents agreement of an additional 12 months of leave from being acceptable. The employee must put the request for an extension in writing. See more

06.01.2022 There is a new National Employment Standard (NES). It is a statutory pathway to permanent employment from casual employment. Existing casual employees who were employed before 27 March 27, 2021 and whose initial employment offer makes it clear that there is no firm advance commitment to continuing work with an agreed pattern, continue to be casual employees under the Fair Work Act. Employers must now give every new casual employee a Casual Employment Information Statement b...efore, or as soon as possible after they start their first engagement as a casual employee. Existing casuals must also be given a copy of the Statement. Eligibility to make a request to convert from casual to full-time or part-time (permanent) employment occurs if casual employees: . have worked for their employer for 12 months and . have worked a regular pattern of hours for at least the last 6 of those months on an ongoing basis and . can continue working those hours as a permanent employee without significant changes. Existing casual employees who satisfy these criteria who were working for a small business employer on 27 March 2021 can make a conversion request at any time from now. Otherwise, they must wait to request to convert from 27 September 2021. Employers with 15 or more employees are required to make a written conversion offer to eligible employees by September 27 or 21 days after their one-year anniversary, whichever comes later. It is important to emphasise that the new right is only to make a REQUEST to convert to permanency. Employers can refuse a request on reasonable grounds. These include that conversion would involve significant changes to an employee’s times of work. Another acceptable reason is that the change to permanency could not be accommodated within the employee’s available days or times for work. Employees can utilise the dispute settling clause of their Award or EBA or a disputes procedure in a common law contract if there is a disagreement on this, as the request to convert is now part of NES. ~ Mosaic on riverside pathway, Southbank Parklands, Brisbane. One of the Clem Jones Promenade Mosaics by Artbusters (1992). I wish I knew who Artbusters is/are. The mosaics are stunning public art installations. See more