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Changes to family and domestic violence leave: how best to support your employees

Changes to family and domestic violence leave: how best to support your employees

August 16, 2022

Domestic violence is an ever-present and serious concern within Australian society. As individuals and parties become more empowered to speak up and gain support, it’s important we’re constantly assessing the way in which employers and our workplaces can play their part in supporting victims. In this article, we discuss what Family and Domestic Violence Leave (FDVL) is and provide an update on the changes to the entitlement, the ways in which it impacts employers, and how best to actively implement them in order to best support victims within workplaces. What is Domestic Violence and Family and Domestic Violence Leave? Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FWA) domestic violence is defined as violent, threatening, or other abusive behaviour by an employee’s close relative which seeks to coerce or control the employee and causes them harm or fear. A close relative is defined broadly: a spouse, de facto partner (including a former spouse or de facto partner), child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of the employee; or a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of a spouse or de facto partner of the employee; or a person related to the employee...
Our people in focus: Olivia Perry, Workplace Relations Consultant

Our people in focus: Olivia Perry, Workplace Relations Consultant

August 15, 2022

FCB’s sister company, HR Assured, is a leading outsourced HR & WHS provider, delivering exceptional services plus software to ensure businesses of all sizes are managing their people compliantly. FCB is proud to introduce you to one of HR Assured’s Workplace Relations Consultants, Olivia Perry. One of the standouts in the 24/7 Telephone Advisory Service team, Olivia was Employee of the Month in June 2022, recognised for being – in the words of those who nominated her – “The embodiment of We're Better Together.” The team Olivia joined in June 2021 is spread across Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and New Zealand. As a Workplace Relations Consultant, Olivia’s role is to receive phone enquiries from HR Assured subscribers who need guidance on employment matters. On a daily basis, Olivia helps prevent as many as 40 employers from mishandling HR or facing non-compliance penalties by guiding them towards legally-sound workplace actions and creating the documents employers need to comply with Fair Work Ombudsman’s regulations – all while maintaining a notoriously bubbly outlook. Here we get to know her a little better. How can we understand what you do at...
Adrian Turner

Overcoming WHS compliance complexity post COVID-19

July 27, 2022

As Australian businesses emerged into the light at the end of COVID’s dark tunnel, they are faced with fresh challenges in keeping their people safe at work. We are witnessing COVID-19’s long tail – together with the permanent shift to a ‘hybrid’ work model – fundamentally changing the operating model of so many businesses. Against the backdrop of Australia’s complex Work Health & Safety (WHS) laws, businesses are grappling with how the changing work environment shifts their risk profile and what the law requires they do to control those risks and keep their people safe at work. When contending with the changing face of the Australian workplace, businesses need not overcomplicate their risk management practices to achieve compliance. Best practice WHS compliance can be achieved by relying on tried and tested risk management practices as part of an underpinning WHS management system. Let’s dive into how. Understanding your duty of care For any employer, there should be no greater concern than the thought of workers being injured on our watch at work. It is for this reason that Australian WHS legislation imposes a legal duty of care on all persons...
Michal Roucek

Arise aged care: driving a high-performance culture in a post-COVID environment

June 29, 2022

Between 8 October 2018, when the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety commenced, and now, the aged care industry has undergone a period of reckoning like no other experienced by any other sector in the Australian economy. The industry is known for its resilience, and that can be mainly attributable to its people, where the workers are overwhelmingly passionate, caring, and genuinely believe in the dignity of elderly Australians. However, there are several challenges still facing the sector, including those which were highlighted by the Royal Commission Report, including attracting and retaining high-quality staff and creating career pathways. While paying higher wage rates and increasing staff numbers is made difficult by funding uncertainties, many of these workforce challenges can be alternatively addressed by creating a high-performance culture. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves amid a unique opportunity to leverage the palpable degree of positivity in the community. So how do we drive a high-performance culture in our teams? How do we ensure that employees conduct themselves appropriately and in a first-rate manner...
Nick Tindley

Australia’s lowest-paid workers to get the biggest wage increase in more than a decade

June 15, 2022

The Fair Work Commission’s Minimum Wage Panel (FWC) handed down its decision on the annual wage review today. The decision provides an increase of 5.2 per cent to the National Minimum Wage, taking it to $21.28 per hour, effective from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2022. The increase to Modern Award minimum wages is $40 per week for classification levels with a weekly wage rate of less than $869.60 per week and 4.6 per cent for all classification levels paying $869.60 per week and above. The increases to Modern Award rates will be staggered for awards in the aviation, tourism, and hospitality industries, meaning these increases (which includes increases to the Restaurant Industry Award 2020, Hospitality Industry Award 2020 and Registered and the Licensed Clubs Award 2020), will be effective from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 October 2022. For all other Modern Awards, the minimum rates will also increase effective from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2022. In reaching its decision, the FWC considered both economic and social factors including: a sharp rise in the cost of living; a strong improvement in the...
Matthew Robinson

Compliance during COVID-19: restructuring the employment framework to engage in a hybrid workforce model

May 31, 2022

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Productivity Commission estimated that only 8 per cent of the Australian workforce had access to regular working from home (WFH) arrangements in place. However, within weeks of COVID-19’s beachhead onto Australian shores, that number had dramatically risen to 38 per cent of the Australian workforce undertaking their work from home [1].   Without a doubt, WFH is one of the most dramatic shifts in the way Australians have performed work in the last few decades, perhaps even the last hundred years. It is unlikely that even if we are able to successfully live with or eradicate COVID-19, working from home arrangements are going to continue to form a substantial portion of how work is performed. This will have profound impacts not only on the way in which we work but also on workplace relations governance and how businesses seek to manage their operational and compliance risks.   However, this transformation has not been homogenous; there has been very little growth, if any, of workplace flexibility for blue and grey collared workers. While the pandemic has predominantly impacted these types of workers in relation to shutdowns...
Rod Marshall

Flexible working arrangements – navigating the new normal

May 31, 2022

The availability, adaptability and scope of flexible working arrangements have become a common feature of employment arrangements since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020 and are now viewed as a key aspect of any company’s attraction and retention strategy. There is a significantly increased focus and emphasis on what flexibility can be offered, with an employee’s circumstances often being a critical defining factor in whether that employee takes up employment – or remains in it.  Not only is it important for flexible working arrangements to be carefully implemented and structured so that they are appropriate for a business from an organisational perspective, but employers also need to pay consistent attention to a range of work health and safety considerations in non-centralised work that must be identified, controlled, and managed on an ongoing basis.  If not an entitlement, at least an expectation  Before the pandemic, the technology allowing many employees to work from home existed — but very few workers did work remotely. However, the pandemic sparked an experiment in which workers were forced to work in decentralised teams, and many...
Brittany Byrne

What happened to Respect@Work?

April 29, 2022

In March 2020, the much-anticipated Respect@Work Report was released by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the outcome of an 18-month inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. The investigation was led by Kate Jenkins, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, and her report outlined 55 recommendations for government, business and community sectors to consider in relation to the prevention of, and in responding to, sexual harassment.  The Respect@Work Report revealed that sexual harassment in the workplace is pervasive and widespread. A year later – about the time Brittany Higgins made allegations of sexual assault in her employment with the Federal Government – advocates across the country gathered at #March4Justice rallies, calling on the Federal Government to implement all 55 of Ms Jenkins’s recommendations. One month later in April 2021, the Federal Government responded with its ‘Roadmap for Respect’ committing to implement most, but not all, of the 55 recommendations.   On 2 September 2021, the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act 2021 (Respect@Work Act) was enacted...
Rod Marshall

Alexandra Sullivan has been short-listed for the Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards 2022.

April 22, 2022

We are delighted to announce that Alexandra Sullivan, Senior Associate in the FCB Workplace Law Sydney team, has been announced as a finalist in the LawyersWeekly 30 under 30 Awards in the Employment & Workplace Relations category for 2022. The Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards is the premier event in showcasing the depth of talent in the nation’s young gun lawyers, recognising their success and their passion for the business of law. The finalist list, which was announced on Wednesday, 20 April, features over 270 high-achieving professionals across 31 submission-based categories. Reaching the finalists stage is regarded as an incredible achievement across the Australian legal industry, showcasing the depth of dedication and commitment each individual brings to advancing the industry. Lawyers Weekly editor Jerome Doraisamy said: “There is no bigger or better celebration of the myriad achievements of Australia’s emerging generation of leaders in law. “With the market looking ahead to a post-pandemic landscape, and the nature of legal service delivery still evolving, it is increasingly challenging for young legal professionals to make their mark...