By Angus Mackenzie, Lawyer It is broadly accepted that an employer can direct an employee to attend medical examinations and to answer questions as part of workplace investigations, so long as the direction is lawful and reasonable. Indeed, the idea that an employee can refuse to respond to his or her employer’s reasonable requests for information […]
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What Employers Need to Know By Lauren Townsend, Special Counsel The requirements that have to be met to achieve approval of an enterprise agreement from the Fair Work Commission (FWC) are many. 2016 and the early months of 2017 have seen a number of developments in this area, and they have brought into high relief […]
Read More →By Angus Mackenzie There is a large and growing market for employers seeking external providers of workplace investigations. Unlike in other jurisdictions, the market for providers of workplace investigations is not regulated in Australia. As a consequence, these services are provided by variously skilled persons, including criminal lawyers, generalist lawyers, HR consultants, former police officers […]
Read More →Wait A Minute Blog Series By Bryan Mueller, Director Workplace Litigation Commission Dispute Settlement: Federal Court Challenges Not Available? Wait a minute: Are you saying that no matter how far wrong the Commission goes in giving an arbitrated decision under enterprise agreement dispute settlement provisions, the Commission’s decision can’t be challenged anywhere? Is that really […]
Read More →Aitken v CUB Pty Ltd [2016] FWC 2668 (Aitken decision) In its letter dismissing its employee, the employer concerned in the Aitken decision, described the conduct upon which it relied to justify its dismissal decision ‘as inconsistent with the trust and confidence required in the relationship’. Also in defending the dismissal in unfair dismissal proceedings […]
Read More →Bartlett Workplace and Strategic HR are joining forces to help organisations unleash their potential by “Thinking Differently” about client services and collaboration. Read more about the alliance here and what the West Australian wrote here.
Read More →On Tuesday 2 February 2016, Bartlett Workplace celebrated the launch of our new premises and training facilities at 41X and officially launched Workplace 360, our interactive platform for HR compliance products and forums dedicated to HR and Workplace professionals. At Bartlett Workplace, we offer a one-stop shop for workplace legal and HR advisory services and […]
Read More →An employee may throw you a curve ball by telling you that they will not meet with you unless they are able to bring their spouse with them as a support person. While the employee is able to request that they bring a support person along to a disciplinary meeting with management, workplace issues may intensify […]
Read More →It is understandable that many employees may feel anxious and even frustrated when called by management to discuss their workplace performance or behaviour. However, if the employee’s frustration turns into anger and they attempt to walk out of the meeting, management should remember that they are able to give the employee a ‘lawful and reasonable […]
Read More →When an employee is performing poorly, generally, the first step management should take is to require the employee to attend an informal counselling session. The aim of these sessions is to help the employee understand where they are failing to meet expected standards and to assist them with identifying ways they can modify their behaviour […]
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