With holidays around the corner, it’s not surprising that many employees tend to lose their inhibitions at work-related end of year celebrations.
Employer Responsibilities
As part of their obligations, and to avoid the litigious pitfalls due to an employee’s inappropriate conduct, employers must take reasonable steps to mitigate their legal exposure and to avoid inappropriate workplace behaviour at the Christmas party, or any other work function
Practical Steps for Employers
Ten basic precautions employers can take include the following:
Ensure all policies and procedures are clear and that they are understood by all employees. A written reminder just prior to the function may assist to ensure employees are aware of the company’s expectations with regard to their behaviour.
Monitor the consumption of alcohol and ensure the venue ceases service if necessary. Also provide non-alcoholic beverages.
Have a designated senior manager who does not drink at the function to increase the level of vigilance and set a ‘lead by example’ approach.
Where there is alcohol, there should also be food. People become inebriated faster when consuming alcohol on an empty stomach.
Enquire about and, if reasonable, provide safe transportation arrangements from the venue, or make sure employees have suitable arrangements in place.
Make it clear when the event ends and remind employees that any ‘kick-on’ parties are subject to the same appropriate behaviour expectations.
Ensure that the entertainment at the event is not considered offensive.
Set guidelines for gift exchanges such as ‘Secret Santa’ to ensure they are not offensive, and set a dress code for the event to maintain the level of professionalism.
Should rumours circulate address them promptly, regardless of whether a formal complaint has been made.
If a complaint is made, investigate it immediately and thoroughly.
Finally remember, the festive season is the time to have some fun and reminisce on the year that was.
The Employment Law team at Everingham Solomons is well equipped to assist you with all your workplace relations issues because Helping You is Our Business.
Modern awards have covered most workplaces from 1 January 2010. A common misconception is that paying above award rates will automatically release an employer from compliance with award obligations. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
Awards govern more conditions than just pay rates, for example, rostering arrangements, allowances, and shift penalties. An employer needs to take positive steps to comply with, vary, or exclude the operation of these and other award conditions.
A breach of award conditions can attract civil penalties of up to $33,000 for a corporate employer and individuals involved can also be penalised up to $6600 for each breach.
Off-setting arrangements
As a general principle, over-award payments can only satisfy entitlements to which the payment is directed. For example, paying a higher hourly rate than the modern award rate of pay will not necessarily off-set penalties or loadings in the modern award, unless it is clear that the parties intended it to do so.
In view of this, a good starting point is to include a ‘set-off’ clause in your employment contracts.
Individual Flexibility Arrangements
This type of clause can be complemented by entering into an Individual Flexibility Arrangement with a particular employee in order to vary the effect of the application of certain terms of the award (e.g. overtime, allowances, loading).
Whether you are an employer or employee, Everingham Solomons will be more than happy to assist you with any employment queries because Helping You is Our Business.
Click here for more information on Jessica Simmonds.
Many employers use employment contracts that are out-dated, or may not have employment contracts for their staff at all. Are the employment contracts your business uses up to scratch?
Employers need to ensure their employment contracts comply with the current legal requirements. This means contracts need to be compliant with the National Employment Standards and the applicable Modern Award.
The National Employment Standards provide for minimum entitlements, such as hours of work, leave entitlements, flexible working arrangements and more.
For example, Business Pty Ltd is employing a new full-time administrative assistant. All Business Pty Ltd’s full-time staff work a 40 hour week. Business Pty Ltd has been using the same style employment contract since 2003. The employment contract states that the new administrative assistant must work 40 hours per week, and anything more than that is considered overtime.
Business Pty Ltd hasn’t realised that the National Employment Standards provide that full-time employees are to work a maximum of 38 hours per week. While an extra 2 hours work per week will likely be considered to be ‘reasonable additional hours’ which the employer may reasonably ask the employee to work, the appropriate award overtime provisions will apply to those 2 hours.
For example, if the new administrative assistant will be covered by the Clerks – Private Sector Award, then he or she will need to be paid time and a half for those extra 2 hours of work every week.
Business Pty Ltd needs to ensure that their employment contract is amended to meet these minimum requirements.
So, are the employment contracts your business uses up to scratch?
The Employment Law team at Everingham Solomons is well equipped to assist you with all your workplace relations issues from contracts of employment and policy updates to termination of employees, redundancy correspondence and warning letters because Helping You is Our Business.
Click here for more information on Jessica Simmonds.
If you are an employer faced with the difficult task of making employees redundant, it is important to know what obligations you have and what steps you ought to take to meet those obligations.
If you are an employee faced with redundancy, it’s important to know your rights and ensure you receive the correct entitlements.
What does redundancy mean?
A redundancy occurs when employment is terminated because the employer decides they no longer want that person’s job to be done by anyone, or because the employer becomes insolvent or bankrupt.
In order for a redundancy to be a ‘genuine redundancy’, it must be shown that:
The job will not be done by anyone else and the position will not be filled by any other person.
The requirements in the applicable modern award, enterprise agreement or industrial instrument to consult with the employee about the redundancy have been followed.
Redundancy pay
Redundancy pay may be up to 16 weeks of ordinary pay and is calculated upon the length of service. There is no legal requirement to pay redundancy pay to employees who have been employed for less than one year. Redundancy pay is paid in addition to any other entitlements, such as outstanding wages and accrued leave entitlements.
Steps to redundancy
Firstly, an employer ought to consider all options and alternatives to redundancy, like redeployment, job sharing and reduced overtime.
Secondly, an employer should meet with the employee who is to be made redundant to explain the situation and give him or her opportunity to ask questions.
Thirdly, written notice of the redundancy ought to be given to the employee.
Whether you are an employer or employee, Everingham Solomons will be more than happy to assist you with any employment queries because Helping You is Our Business.
Click here for more information on Jessica Simmonds.
With holidays around the corner, it’s not surprising that many employees tend to lose their inhibitions at work-related end of year celebrations.