Byline: David McLaughlin

On 3 June 2025, the Fair Work Commission handed down its 2025 Annual Wage Review decision.

Case note: Ms Jessica Dickson v Mr Felipe Cespedes & Susann Kovacs [2025] FWC 1218

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has found a nanny who was paid cash-in-hand and who had agreed to be labelled as a contractor was an employee for the purposes of dealing with a general protections dismissal dispute. In the decision, Deputy President Butler examined the ordinary meanings of employee and employer and their relationships with the meaning of contractor.

BS v Active Crane Hire Pty Ltd [2023 FWCFB] 152

On 1 September 2023, BS (Applicant) succeeded in an appeal in the Fair Work Commission against a decision of Deputy President Boyce issued on 25 January 2023. BS had applied for an unfair dismissal remedy against his former employer, Active Crane Hire Pty Ltd (Respondent). The Respondent’s reason for dismissing the Applicant was unsatisfactory performance involving sleeping on duty.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) proposed a number of amendments in the workplace and industrial relations space which, given the election outcome, the Albanese government is likely to pursue.

On 15 June 2022, the Fair Work Commission handed down its 2022 Annual Wage Review decision.

Two related decisions handed down by the High Court of Australia on Wednesday 9 February 2022 continue the approach of the Court enunciated in the Workpac v Rossato [2021] HCA 23 (Rossato) decision handed down last year giving primacy to the terms of the written contract to determine the nature of the relationship between the parties.

The Victorian Government has again extended Mandatory Vaccination requirements for workers and operators of specified facilities from 11.59pm 12 January 2022 under the Pandemic Orders¹.

On Friday 1 October, the Victorian Premier announced new rules in relation to vaccination requirements for workers attending workplaces.

In a partial implementation of the recommendations arising from the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s Respect@Work report, the Federal Parliament has passed the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021. The Act will commence when it receives Royal Assent which is expected to occur in the coming days.

The Treasurer handed down the Federal Budget last week. Detailed below are the key tax measures announced that are relevant to Human Resources managers who will need to familiarise themselves with the developments.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has recently handed down two significant decisions which turn to the question of whether requiring an employee to receive an influenza vaccination is a lawful and reasonable direction.

Significant amendments to the proposed Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021 (the Bill) were circulated and passed on 17 March 2021 at the Senate.

Welcome to our series of HR interviews with Lawyer Monika Nosal who answers some of the most common questions asked by HR managers regarding employees’ legal entitlements.

This article was first published on 3 September 2020 by AMTIL.

The phrase ‘wage theft’ has been introduced into the Australian industrial landscape.

On Thursday 13 August 2020, the High Court handed down its much-anticipated decision in the “Mondelez” case. This matter involved an appeal by Mondelez against the Federal Court Full Court decision which effectively held that 10 days personal leave under the National Employment Standards was 10 days regardless of the ordinary hours worked on any day. For Mondelez, this meant that 12-hour shift workers could have 10 days of 12 hours of personal leave per year, equal to 120 hours of personal leave per year.

Consistent with the ever-changing workplace during this COVID-19 Pandemic, another new requirement has been introduced for employers.

Annual Wage Review Decision

On 19 June 2020, the Fair Work Commission handed down its 2020 Annual Wage Review Decision. The key elements of the decision are:

• the national minimum wage will increase by 1.75% from $19.49 to $19.84 per hour from 1 July 2020¹ ; and
• a 1.75% increase to full-time minimum wage rates in modern awards.

The JobKeeper payment scheme was announced on 30 March 2020 with the objective of providing financial support to entities to assist with the impact of COVID-19. Since that time, there has been a significant amount of information released to explain the complex operation of the scheme, including Treasury Rules, Australian Tax Office (ATO) rulings and guidelines, together with amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 to enable employers to temporarily vary work arrangements for eligible employees.