We advise employers of all sizes throughout Australia on all aspects of employment, industrial relations and safety law. Our clients value our broad expertise and our responsive, pragmatic and commercial approach.
About Employment, Workplace Relations & Safety
We help our clients navigate the many issues that arise from their employment, industrial relations and safety obligations. Our clients value our depth of expertise and our highly responsive, pragmatic and commercial approach.
We advise employers of all sizes on all aspects of employment, industrial relations and safety law.
Known for our strategic approach, we work closely with our clients to ensure their workplace structures and strategies support their overall business objectives. We guide our clients through changes to the law and help them implement ‘best practice’, safe and cost-effective workplace systems and procedures.
We offer a national service, regularly advising on employment, industrial relations and work health and safety issues throughout Australia.
Additional Services
As well as legal services, we offer our clients a range of complementary services including:
- Regular updates concerning relevant changes and developments to the law, and important cases that give practical guidance on the best practices to adopt
- Interactive half-day workshops on topical employment and industrial relations issues
- ‘Round table’ hr forums on various topics of interest to clients
- On-site training targeted at management and staff, covering issues impacting our clients’ organisations
- Assisting with managing relationships and issues between various stakeholders, including workers, unions, worksafe inspectors, regulators and service providers.
Expertise
- Award interpretation and compliance issues
- Bullying complaints
- Confidential information, IP rights
- Corporate transactions, transfer of business issues and employee due diligence (arising on business shares/units/sales and purchases), outsourcing, insourcing and other restructuring
- Disciplinary issues, employee grievances
- Discrimination and sexual harassment
- Employment contracts and service agreements (including senior executives)
- Enterprise agreements (drafting and negotiation)
- Independent contractor agreements and disputes
- Industrial disputes resolution
- Labour hire agreements
- Management of ill and injured workers
- Performance management
- Post employment restraints
- Privacy, workplace surveillance, record keeping and data protection
- Redundancy
- Right of entry
- Social media in the workplace
- Strategic industrial relations and employment advice
- Superannuation obligations
- Termination of employment
- Underpayment claims
- Unfair dismissal and general protections claims
- Whistleblower obligations
- Work health and safety
- Workplace investigations (including equal opportunity, bullying and harassment, misconduct and employee fraud investigations)
- Workplace policies and procedures
Examples
Members of our team have recently been involved in the following matters:
- Preparing employment agreements for an A-League football club
- Defending unfair dismissal claims in the Fair Work Commission
- Representing a national retailer in defending a worksafe prosecution
- Managing a post-injury/fatality investigation involving multiple investigating authorities (Worksafe, police and maritime safety) for a major road transport organisation and a major maritime business
- Managing health and safety prosecutions and negotiating enforceable undertakings, and appearing on sentencing hearings
- Defending general protection claims in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia
- Defending an underpayment claim brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia
- Defending a discrimination complaint lodged against a national employer
- Acting in injunctive proceedings for a client that sought to enforce a post-employment restraint
- Acting in injunctive proceedings for a client seeking the return of confidential information taken by ex-senior employees
- Conducting an audit for an employer on compliance with modern awards and legislation
- Acting for an employer in civil proceedings against a former employee for misappropriation of funds
- Assisting an employer to terminate an enterprise agreement that had passed its nominal expiry date
- Acting for a major charitable organisation, and investigating and reporting on workplace cultural issues and safety risks following major bullying and harassment claims
- Acting for a major construction contractor in an industrial dispute application over the interpretation of award-based travel allowances and other allowances in a claim by multiple employees through their union.
Employment, Workplace Relations & Safety Articles
Breach of Employment Contract Claims – the Next Likely Employer Trap
Breach of Employment Contract Claims - the Next Li [...]
Employers discriminated against in discrimination disputes
In a system that already imposes onerous obligatio [...]
Inadvertent wage underpayment – the employer nightmare
In just over 4 months (on 1 January 2025) the Fai [...]