Byline: David McLaughlin

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.