Nothing implied: Construction as a means of curbing excessive use of power in employment contracts
Volume 30 Issue 2 of the Australian Journal of Labour Law is now available online to subscribers. Lexis Advance ® | LNAU Lawyers regularly review their precedents to ensure that they preserve the power employers have over their employees. They do so knowing that...
How to protect your IP without making a groundless or unjustified threat
One of the most common and effective means of a party acting to protect its intellectual property (IP) is by sending (or having a lawyer send) a letter of demand, with such letters forming a key part of the day-to-day practice of many IP lawyers. However, these...
Identifying workplace bullying as a result of COVID-19: Duties for employers
With the increase in employees now working from home full time, employers need to be aware of new and additional pressures on individuals that can be significant risk factors for workplace bullying. Even when working from home, employees are at risk of workplace...
Insider Threat
We are living in a very complex world filled with vulnerability and uncertainty, where anyone, externally or internally, can cause harm to you and your organisation. When a person with authorised access to organisational resources becomes an adversary, they are...
Respect at work, safe workplaces remain far from reach for Australian employees
Amid headlines listing COVID numbers & quarantine mishandling incidents across the states, Australia attracted global attention earlier this year with stories emerging from Parliament that detailed sexual harassment, assault, inappropriate behaviour, bullying and...
APRA releases guidance on managing crypto asset risks
On 21 April 2022, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) issued risk management guidelines (in the form of a letter) for APRA-regulated entities that engage in crypto asset related activity. The guidelines outline APRA’s risk management expectations...
A question of notice: employment contract’s implied term of reasonable notice versus the Fair Work Act’s notice provisions.
Courts have had to decide many cases in which a dismissed employee claims damages for breach of contract, the alleged breach being the failure to give the amount of notice that was implied into the contract (because there was no express term specifying the period...
If you wanted to, could you pay the ransom for a cyber attack?
After nearly a week, the details of the Optus cyber attack are still unclear. At one point, it was thought that confidential data relating to 10,000 unlucky Optus customers had potentially been leaked by the now infamous Optus hackers. Passport details, dates of...
A crisis management guide for in-house counsel
Preparing for a crisis? Natural disasters, power cuts, industrial accidents, stakeholder activism or cybercrime, or simply the loss of a partnership contract are only some of the events that could precipitate a crisis, resulting in damage to your organisation’s...
Employer liability for Psychosocial hazards caused to an employee: Kozarov v Victoria [2022] HCA 12 (Kozarov)
In Kozarov v Victoria [2022] HCA 12 (Kozarov), the High Court decided an employer had a common law duty to take reasonable steps to manage mental health risks inherent to an employee’s job. This duty existed regardless of whether the employee showed warning signs...
5 Steps to Bridge the Reputation-Reality Gap During a Cyber Incident
As 2022 cyber events have shown us, few crises have the potential to impact an organisation’s reputation as negatively as a cyber incident. When not handled correctly, the damage to an organisation’s reputation from a cyber event can be severe and long lasting...
ACCC 2023/2024 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities
On 7 March 2023, the Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb, announced the ACCC’s 2023/2024 enforcement and compliance priorities and confirmed its enduring priorities. The priorities span across both competition...
The Internet’s “bizarre” bazaar: ACCC enforcement on digital marketplaces
This article comes from the experts behind the Internet Law Bulletin which covers a range of legal issues posed by the Internet and online services: issues as diverse as copyright, defamation, online dispute resolution, privacy, trade practices and criminal law...
Casual employees, unfair dismissal and general protections: recent commission rulings
Introduction The evolution of workplace protections has shown little signs of slowing in recent times. More and more often, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has provided decisions on the broadening protections for employees and correspondingly broadening responsibilities...
Contractor or employee? Contract remains king and the superannuation guarantee is still unsettled
Overview of the issue The issue as to who falls within the ordinary or extended meaning of “employee” under the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth) (SGA Act) has arisen again, and this time, the result of the Full Court of the Federal Court...