Emma Watt Workplace Untangler - Our Articles

One of the features of modern awards that is a departure from tradition is the method of setting allowances.  In the past, allowances have generally been expressed in dollar terms in each award, making it easy to work out what to pay just by looking at the relevant clause. ...read more

I have a disclaimer that I put on quite a lot of the documents I publish or send out to people.  Something along the lines of 'I really tried to make sure this was right, but if it's wrong, don't look at me'.   ...read more

Minimum wages in modern awards will increase by 3.4% from the first pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2011.  That means that minimum wages paid under modern awards will change from the full pay period that falls completely in July.  Employers are not required to split a pay period and use two different sets of rates to calculate wages for one pay period. ...read more

I sometimes have employers asking me if sick leave is cumulative.  Sick leave has now been replaced by personal/carer's leave, which encompasses situations where the employee is personally ill or injured, or needs to take time off to care for a member of his or her immediate family.

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The Victorian Parliament last week passed Brodie's Law, which amended the Crimes Act to make workplace and cyber bullying criminal offences.  Anyone in Victoria convicted under the Crimes Act of workplace bullying now faces up to ten years in prison. ...read more

Today a Full Bench of Fair Work Australia issued the 2011 Minimum Wages decision.  From 1 July 2011, minimum wage rates in modern awards will rise by 3.4%, with weekly wages to be rounded to the nearest 10 cents. ...read more

Fast food retailer Hungry Jack’s Pty Ltd has been fined $100,500 after underpaying almost 700 of its Tasmanian employees hundreds of thousands of dollars. ...read more

Late in 2010, a decision of the Federal Court specified that a casual employee may not actually be a casual employee, and may be entitled to a permanent employee’s entitlements such as annual leave.   Even though this decision was made under the Workplace Relations Act 2006, not the current Fair Work Act 2009, the principle may well hold, and employers should take note. ...read more

What is redundancy?
An employee is redundant when the employer no longer needs the employee to do the job the employee has been doing.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that the work that is performed is no longer required – it could be that, for example, you had three people on assembly and you now only need two people, so one person is redundant. ...read more

When you tell an employee that they must be at work and ready to start at 7.30 am, do you expect to see them at 7.20 am?  Is this reasonable? ...read more