The Australian Government Tables Closing Loopholes Bill: What It Means For Your Business

On 4 September 2023, the Federal Government introduced the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (Cth) (Bill) in the House of Representatives. This Bill is significant, running to 278 pages and covering 28 distinct parts. It proposes reforms that will have a substantial impact on employers, employees, principals, and contractors. In many respects, the Bill … Read more

Australia: Survey of state – WHS regulation and reform relating to psychosocial risks

This article was updated on 5 September 2023. The pressure to better regulate psychological health in the workplace has been ever increasing since the release of Marie Boland’s independent Review of the model Work Health and Safety laws (Boland Review) in 2018, followed by Kate Jenkin’s Respect@Work Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces and … Read more

UK: Court of Appeal rules on Covid-related automatic unfair dismissal claim

Employees can claim automatic unfair dismissal (from day one of employment) where they are dismissed because they left or refused to return to work in circumstances of danger which they reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, and which they could not reasonably have been expected to avert.  In its first Covid-related dismissal case, Rodgers … Read more

US: A High-Profile Year for the WARN Act

Before COVID-19 and the recent layoffs at Twitter Inc., the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act maintained a low profile; the act did not garner significant media attention, and cases alleging violations of the act were limited and largely routine. An explanation for this, at least in part, is that the WARN Act … Read more

Australia: Victorian Fair Jobs Code: New rules for businesses tendering for Victorian Government contracts

What is the Code? The Victorian Fair Jobs Code is being introduced by the Victorian Government to ensure that suppliers tendering for Victorian Government procurement contracts and businesses applying for significant business expansion grants are treating their workers “fairly” and are abiding by industrial laws and relevant health & safety regulations. Under the Code, suppliers … Read more