General Protections

Featured image for “Performance Management That Holds Up” showing an office desk with a laptop, performance charts, workflow documents and reports.

Performance Management That Holds Up: Why a Valid Reason Is Only Half the Defence

Compliance /

An engineer with thirty years’ experience was dismissed for genuinely substandard work. Missed deadlines. Quality problems. A welding error that halted a production line.  The Fair Work Commission accepted there was a valid reason to dismiss him. He won anyway — and was awarded compensation of $21,471.15 plus superannuation — because the employer had no formal performance management process and gave him

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Manager discussing a flexible work request with an employee across a desk, with legal symbols including scales of justice, a gavel, and hybrid work icons representing Australian workplace flexibility and Fair Work compliance.

Flexible Work Requests: What Recent Fair Work Commission Decisions Require of Employers

Compliance /

What’s the real issue?  Since the 2023 changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), how you handle a flexible work request now matters as much as whether you say yes or no. Under section 65B, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) can now arbitrate refused requests — and order you to grant one anyway if you did not follow the

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Featured image showing an open office doorway leading to a workplace, symbolising an employee's return to work, injury recovery, workplace reintegration, and employer responsibilities under Australian employment and WHS laws.

Return to Work Under Pressure: Managing Injury, Capacity and Employer Risk in the Australian Workplace

Compliance /

Managing ill and injured employees is one of the highest-risk tasks any Australian employer faces. When a worker is injured or falls ill, several legal regimes switch on at once — and they don’t always agree. Get it right and you protect your people and your organisation. Get it wrong and one termination can trigger multiple claims.  Here’s how to do it —

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Featured image showing a manager reviewing probation documents with a new employee, representing probation management, performance discussions, and employer obligations under the Fair Work Act.

Probation Done Properly: What Employer Obligations Under the Fair Work Act Really Mean

Compliance, Uncategorized /

Probation is not a legal safe zone. Ending employment during probation removes unfair dismissal exposure — but not a general protections claim, a discrimination complaint, or a breach of contract. Getting the fundamentals right keeps you out of trouble.  What’s the real issue?  Employers routinely confuse two very different things:  A contractual probation period — a creature of contract

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Featured image showing legal scales, a shield with people icons, workplace documents, and silhouettes of employees, representing general protections claims and Fair Work Commission case management for Australian employers.

General Protections Claims: What the Fair Work Commission’s New Case Management Means for Australian Employers

Compliance /

The Fair Work Commission has overhauled how general protections claims are run, and the shift favours prepared employers. Representation is decided “on the papers” before conference; out-of-time applications are triaged before you are served; conciliation is a fast 60-minute, resolution-only session; and a new Early Dispute Resolution (EDR) pilot tests informal settlement calls soon after lodgement. The reforms reward preparation

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