Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “workplace laws”
If there’s one thing COVID-19 / coronavirus (‘C-19’ for the cool kids) has shown the business world, it’s that remote working is achievable for many different types of roles and duties that might normally have been pushed aside in a request to work from home. Necessity is the mother of all invention as they say. If you have found yourself in this situation or know of friends and business colleagues who are, you might already have started thinking about what …
If you said having to address an employee’s bad body odour then you’re certainly not alone! The first time I heard this example from someone, I was struck by the terror they felt at getting it wrong. They hadn’t started the day to cross socially acceptable boundaries like this let alone with an employee with protections from a poorly handled insult to their dignity! Given I recently heard this as yet another example of the worst conversation to have with an …
I’ve tended to stray from regularly talking about RAW HR and after some questions recently, I thought it would be helpful to put out some further information on what makes the RAW HR team tick and why we do what we do. First, let me set a scene…imagine if you had an extra day each week to work on your business, (or to spend however you choose)? Example 1 – you need to take on another staff member, but don’t …
Records – in particular, records relating to employment. *yawn* But….what if we told you this is often the one area that employers wish they’d paid attention to before they were hit with penalties by an industrial regulator? In our travels, we regularly see missed record keeping requirements that would fail an inspection by an industrial regulator. For example, not having the correct pay level recorded, no date of commencement of employment…or there being no record of the termination of employment! …
A knowledgeable and thoughtful word from CBSW Tax and Business Advisors For over 20 years employers have had a legal requirement to pay superannuation for their employees with respect to their ‘Ordinary Time Earnings’. The current rate for superannuation is 9.5%, which has steadily increased over this time and is scheduled to continue its increase over the coming years. Sometimes, for a range of reasons, employers have underpaid or not paid the correct superannuation contributions. The Australian Taxation Office (“ATO”) …
Hands up if you know that casual staff can’t claim for unfair dismissal? If that’s you – think again. In the 2018 decision Gwatkin v Sai Group of Businesses t/as Premier Hotel Pinjarra*, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) held that a casual employee was entitled to an unfair dismissal remedy on the basis they met the minimum employment period, that their work pattern was ‘regular and systematic’ and they had an ongoing expectation of work. [cue sound of record needle …
In the same way that all business owners are in the business of sales and marketing – all business owners with staff are in the business of human resources (HR). Why do we say that? It can cost up to 50% of a team member’s salary to replace them if you don’t recruit the right person first time around – yep, that’s $35,000 for someone on $70,000 Wages are the single most reported cost pressure for WA businesses – so …
Taking on a franchise has loads of benefits for starting your first business. Don’t know how to market your product? The franchisor does. How do you compete with multinationals? Franchises act like a cooperative in this regard. But how do you legally hire and fire your team (plus everything else in-between)? Well, from an employment perspective, this is where you do need to understand that you’re still an employer in your own right…albeit franchisors now stand to bear some of …
In your business’s lifetime, there may come a point you think about changing your business structure. If you’re thinking of becoming a Pty Ltd entity, or making any change that changes which systems of industrial relations apply to your business, there are some things to considering at the planning stage 1) There are two industrial relations systems that apply in Australia The national system – managed by the Fair Work Ombudsman – covers Proprietary Limited companies – that is, Pty …
***** Important Note***** As at 1st October 2018, the Fair Work Commission have approved the Model Clause relating to casual conversion rights and obligations for award-covered employees. These changes take affect across the remaining industries not already covered by these provisions. Read our updated article HERE. ************************** For those of us who love staying on top of the latest HR news, it has been hard to miss the major changes that the Fair Work Commission announced following their 4-year …
