Rojgar Job News

Although industrial relations did not heavily feature in the Coalition’s election campaign, now that the dust has settled on its re-election the Government has announced a Review of industrial relations laws. The areas to be targeted include: Casual employment Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter has confirmed that he does not believe casual employment in itself to be problematic. However, he has acknowledged the popular view that the definition of casual employment requires clarity. The issue has been a hot topic in Australia for some time, particularly following a 2018 Federal Court decision which reviewed the definition of “casual employment” and the offset between casual loadings and permanent employee entitlements and the subsequent introduction of the Fair Work Amendment (Casual Loading Offset) Regulations 2018 , to prevent casual employees’ “double dipping” entitlements (that is, to be paid casual loadings, but upon being correctly re...

A well-known term of the CJRS is that the employee shouldn’t while on furlough do any work for the employer or provide any services to it.  A simple enough proposition, one might think, despite the unknown pundit whose wise words appear above, but as with much of this Scheme, once you get down into the weeds of it, questions inevitably arise at the margins. Here are our thoughts on some we have received: Should we cut off the email access of furloughed employees? This was based on some fairly strident Covid-19 guidance put out by the CIPD, which includes the statement that “ even tasks such as basic administration, replying to customer care emails or briefing colleagues with handover information are services…..and may count as work ”.  If HMRC later audited email folders for the relevant period and saw such activity, for example, could the employer be required to pay anything back, let alone (as the CIPD suggests) “ all the payments under the Job...