Major amendments to the unfair contractual terms (“UCT”) regime were introduced by the Treasury Laws Amendment (More Competition, Better Prices) Act 2022 (Cth) (the Amending Act) (“Amending Act”) which received royal assent on 9 November 2022, and which comes into effect this year, on 9 November 2023.
The labor government made a number of election promises in the last federal election, one of which was to ensure workplace equality for men and women with respect to pay. The government committed to close the gender pay gap and improve workplace participation by women.
Do I Really Have To Do That? Are Employees Obliged To Do Everything Their Employer Tells Them To Do?
There is an implied term in every employment contract which requires an employee to comply with lawful and reasonable directions from their employer. Often, written contracts of employment will include an express term to this effect. The term goes to the core of the employment relationship. It gives effect to the right of employers to exert ‘’control’ over an employee’s performance and conduct at work. This includes the employer’s ability to dictate what the employee will be doing during their employment, how they will do it, when they will do it and where they will do it.
Redundancies are an unfortunate but necessary part of the business cycle for a variety of reasons. The redundancy process can be quite complex and the recent decision of Alesia Khliustova v Isoton Pty Ltd [2023] FWC 658 is a particularly precautionary tale for employers looking to make roles redundant. The Isoton Decision which was recently handed down is significant, and is a useful illustration of when dismissal, because of redundancy, will be considered genuine.
The Fair Work Commission (“FWC”) has recently published its Annual Wage Review. The FWC have announced:
• The National Minimum Wage will increase to $23.23 per hour, or $882.80 per week based on a 38 hour week.
• There will be a 5.75% increase to minimum modern award wages.
• The increase will commence from the first pay period following 1 July 2023.
The FWC’s decision will greatly impact many businesses given the current economic climate and struggles faced by companies over the past 12 months. As such, we have set out the changes and what employers need to know moving forward.
How and when we work is continuously evolving and reveal that the traditional Monday to Friday in the office from 9-5pm is likely a thing of the past. If that that is the case businesses will need to be agile and adaptable to allow for seamless evolution to ensure productivity and the ability to retain and incentivise staff remain achievable goals. To do so, we’ll need to question how we view work. In this article, we will examine various flexible work arrangements and broadly evaluate their feasibility and discuss ways for business to best prepare for the future.
As a result of recent security breaches, large scale hacking and other cyber security threats in the workplace, there is increasing pressure on businesses to implement more secure systems which can help prevent these types of threats. In addition to increased surveillance and other security technology, there has also been an uptake in the number of businesses which are introducing biometric authentication methods and facial recognition technologies into the workplace to increase their security, ease of access and precise data collection.
Is big brother watching us at work, and if not, should it be? The issue of surveillance at work and how far employers are able to go in surveilling their employees is a vexed question. Not only does it raise significant legal issues but also may have significant consequences for the culture of the workplace. In additional to the increased use of artificial intelligence and automation, surveillance is also an extremely important development that is changing the nature of the workplace.
AI technology is still in its earlier stages of development as far as its impact on work. However, this is rapidly changing and one type of AI that has the real potential to completely change how we work are chatbots. Many industries that are customer facing such as banks, utility companies and mobile phone providers, have implemented chat bots in the workplace to answer customer queries and concerns in a more efficient and cost-effective way.
As we saw in the introduction to the Future of Work article, as technology continues to evolve, so will the workplace. In particular, artificial intelligence (“AI”) and automation will likely continue to play a key role in the workplace and can, if used appropriately, increase efficiency and accuracy and save costs. Almost certainly, AI, automation and technological advances will make certain tasks and roles obsolete, in particular in industries where the tasks are repetitive and mundane.
The Australian workplace has been going through a significant transformation in recent years, driven by various factors including technological advances and the normalisation of flexible working conditions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As technology continues to evolve and the nature of the workplace becomes more automated and diffuse, businesses will be required to adapt to the new changes in order to stay competitive and ensure their workforce is engaged and meets the businesses’ evolving needs.
In the recent case of Wipro, the New South Wales Court of Appeal changed the NSW position on how statutory long service leave operates. This decision narrows who may have an entitlement to long service. In particular, the decision held that in order for the employment period to count towards ‘continuous service’ and qualify for long service leave, the work must have a substantial connection to NSW.