Under work health and safety legislation, persons conducting a business or undertaking have duties to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable the health and safety of workers in the workplace. It is also accepted that workplace bullying is a risk to health and safety of workers which needs to be managed as any other health and safety risk.

Various Australian jurisdictions have been slowly introducing an offence of industrial manslaughter, dealing with workplace fatalities that arise as a result of negligent conduct by a person conducting a business or undertaking or its officers.

The Federal Court of Australia has handed down a record $10.34 million in penalties against two related entities for various contraventions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) resulting in substantial underpayments.

On 26 February 2024, the second tranche of Closing Loopholes amendments was legislated by the Federal Government under the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No.2) Act 2024 (Cth). The first tranche of Closing Loopholes amendments was passed in December last year, a summary of which you can find here.

The Fair Work Commission’s Expert Panel handed down its decision on Friday substantially concluding Stage 3 of the Work Value Case – Aged Care Industry proceedings. The decision provided further wage adjustments for employees, as well as new classification definitions and structures under the Aged Care Award 2010, the Nurses Award 2020 and the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010.

Join us in our next webinar as our Managing Director and Principal, Athena Koelmeyer, explores two key areas that have undergone significant change over the past few years and will undergo yet another change under these amendments – that is, the changes to casual employment and the new definition of employment.