Employment / Workplace Relations

Employment and industrial law is an ever-changing area of the business landscape in Australia. Legislation is continuously evolving and employment claims and compensation payments continue to rise. The right expertise and experience can make all the difference in enabling businesses to effectively manage their risks, and in ensuring individuals fully understand their rights.

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Overview

Keypoint’s workplace relations team has the experience and expertise necessary to navigate this complex area of law. We advise on all employment related issues from the hiring of new staff to the termination of employment, including performance management, disciplinary issues and grievances, redundancies and the protection of company goodwill. We help companies ensure their employment documentation is up to date to reduce risk and improve employee efficiency. Our lawyers appear in all industrial tribunals and courts and can assist with any employment related litigation. We assist clients with enterprise bargaining, complying with good faith bargaining obligations, workplace health and safety, and equal opportunity and anti-discrimination matters.

We also help individuals on their own employment rights, regularly scrutinising contracts and giving guidance on employment documentation, discrimination, bullying and harassment. We offer proactive solutions ranging from mediation and conciliation, all the way to the prosecution of claims in employment tribunals.

Keypoint Law’s experts provide a full range of advice to clients on employment matters, including:

Executive service agreements
Employment contracts
Employment policies
Employment rights
Change management and redundancy
Human rights and equal opportunity law
Restrictive covenants and the protection of company goodwill
Bullying
Unfair dismissal / general protection claims / breach of contract
Whistleblowers
Enterprise agreements and good faith bargaining
Work health and safety
Training
Investigations

For further information, please email enquiries@keypointlaw.com.au or telephone (02) 8035 5200 to speak with one of our lawyers.

Lawyers

Australia

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Lisa Faisca completed law through the Legal Profession Admission Board, University of Sydney in September 2016. Prior to her admission as a lawyer, Lisa gained a wealth of practical legal experience working as a Paralegal and Legal Secretary in various law firms, including a leading industrial relations law firm, accredited criminal law practice and a large national firm.

Lisa

Faisca

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Douglas has 22 years' experience advising businesses on a broad range of commercial matters and transactions, with a particular focus on Australian companies looking to export or expand into the UK, and in supporting UK government export initiatives into the Australasian market. Douglas is dual qualified in both jurisdictions. Prior to joining Keypoint, Douglas was a Consultant with Kemp Strang (now Thomson Geer) and before that, was a Co-Principal of a boutique corporate and commercial law firm. Douglas originally trained in London with commercial and banking practice Wilde & Partners.

Douglas

Linnette

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Shana has over 20 years' experience as an employment and industrial lawyer. She began her career as a barrister in South Africa. She has a Masters in Law from Cambridge University, and was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Harmers Workplace Lawyers. She is an experienced litigator in the employment arena and is the trusted advisor for all employment related matters for her corporate and government clients.

Shana

Schreier-Joffe

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Dean graduated with distinction from the University of Technology, Sydney in 2013 having completed a combined Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Laws degree. During his university career, Dean completed specialist subjects in employment law, insolvency, family law and alternative dispute resolution. Prior to joining Keypoint, Dean worked at national specialist employment relations firm, Harmers Workplace Lawyers.

Dean

Tolkin

Keynotes

Country

Australia

#Metoo – why this year’s festive season should be different

It is now 12 months since the insidious discriminatory and sexually predatory behavior of powerful Hollywood moguls was exposed by a few very brave women. It is also 12 months since the phenomena of the #metoo movement. The fallout from all this publicity is certainly a heightened awareness of the unacceptable behaviours that occur at work, mostly against women. Now with the Christmas and New Year period upon us, many employers will be celebrating the end of 2018 with their employees.

Posted on:

7 Dec 2018

You need to take a holiday, no why, if or buts..

It is that time of year again. Employers are looking at the holiday period and how this is managed. Many employers will be closing down operations over the festive season and want employees to take this time as annual leave. However, employees are not always so willing to take annual leave at this time.

Posted on:

26 Nov 2018

The Importance of Human Rights

Last night I attended the eightieth commemoration of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass at Sydney’s Great Synagogue. The events that occurred in Nazi Germany and its surrounding European countries, on Kristallnacht was the precursor to the worst atrocity committed by humans against one another in modern times, if not all times.

Posted on:

9 Nov 2018

Sexual harrassment in the workplace under the microscope

In this week’s article we consider the continued effect of the #MeToo movement on Australian workplaces, the legal definition of sexual harassment and an employer’s responsibilities in relation to sexual harassment in the workplace. Most importantly, we consider what steps employers should be taking within their business to reduce the risks in this area. We also examine a recent decision which demonstrate the changing attitude of the Fair Work Commission towards sexual harassment in the workplace.

Posted on:

26 Oct 2018

The costs of knowingly misusing your competitors’ confidential information

Is it acceptable for an employee to approach the clients and connections of their previous employer for the benefit of a new employer? The answer to this question depends on a number of matters including whether the employee is subject to restraints preventing such conduct, whether the approaches to the clients occurs before or after the employee leaves the employment and whether the employee uses their old employer’s confidential information.

Posted on:

12 Oct 2018

Can independent contractors be restrained from soliciting and competing with their principal?

When an employee or independent contractor leaves a business, they have the potential to significantly damage the business by misusing confidential information and client relationships. To prevent this, many businesses utilise restraints and confidentiality clauses within their employment contracts and independent contractor agreements.

Posted on:

28 Sep 2018

Keeping it casual: Landmark decision affecting casual employment

In this week’s article we consider the proper legal definition of casual employment and also consider a recent landmark decision of the Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia which considered whether a casual truck driver whose employment was terminated was entitled to accrued annual leave.

Posted on:

14 Sep 2018

Workforce Planning in a Slowing National Economy: A Timely Refresher on Change Management and Redundancies

Change management and, in particular, downsizing has the potential to present a melting pot of legal issues for employers, and there are many practical traps for organisations to consider in planning and executing redundancies especially in an economic downturn.

Posted on:

31 Aug 2018

Labour for hire: What you need to know

When you think about it, it is inconceivable to imagine certain Australian industries such as construction, agriculture and the resources sector (to name a few), continuing to function, much less survive, without the supply of labour via labour hire. Given that many Australian companies utilise labour hire services of some kind either directly or via third party contractors, and the spotlight which is continuing to be shone by unions and regulators on the protection of vulnerable classes of workers in Australia, various State governments have recently enacted legislation to reform how labour hire activities are provided.

Posted on:

17 Aug 2018

The Fair Work Commission anti-bullying jurisdiction: Has the Fair Work Commission stopped the bullies?

Under Part 6-4B of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (“Act”), the Fair Work Commission (“Commission”) has the power to make a ‘stop bullying order’ when a worker has been bullied at work, unless the alleged bullying conduct amounts to “reasonable management action”carried out in a “reasonable manner”. This jurisdiction, which commenced on 1 January 2014 with widespread community support and in particular from the Commonwealth government, has been in operation for over 4 years, and in this time, it has had much lower rates of utilisation than expected. Evidently, much the same can be said for the success rates of those who have pursued a bullying application through the Commission.

Posted on:

3 Aug 2018

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