Posts Tagged ‘COVID-19’
COVID Controversy: Obtaining pandemic-relevant information from employees
As businesses navigate the challenges of ensuring the health and safety of their customers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, they must be careful to avoid infringing upon the privacy of their employees. A recent decision in the Fair Work Commission is useful for understanding what information an employer can request of its employees, as…
Read MoreFWC finds the limits to JobKeeper stand downs
The Fair Work Commission has, for the first time in the short life of the JobKeeper jurisdiction, tested exactly how far a JobKeeper stand down direction can go in reducing an employee’s hours. In a decision handed down earlier this week, Deputy President Peter Anderson determined that the employer had gone too far in reducing…
Read MoreHow to safely bring your employees back to the workplace after hibernation
Due to the speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic spread and required social distancing to ‘flatten the curve’, many companies were forced to either stand down their workforces or organise and implement alternative working arrangements (including work from home arrangements) with little opportunity to reflect on the challenges associated with either course of action, including…
Read MoreFair Work Commission hands down first COVID-19 related redundancy pay decisions
The Fair Work Commission has set the benchmark for employers seeking to reduce the amount of redundancy pay payable to employees who were made redundant due to a downturn in business as a result of COVID-19. Earlier this month, the FWC heard an application from Mason Architectural Joinery Pty Ltd, a small joinery and cabinet making business…
Read MoreThe essential guide to redundancy during COVID-19
The unprecedented disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) has left many employers considering their immediate options to reduce expenditure over the coming weeks and months. In most cases, substantial cost-savings may be able to be achieved by consulting with employees about reducing their hours of work by agreement or taking annual leave until the business is…
Read MoreCoronavirus: Frequently asked questions by employers in the midst of an outbreak
As we’ve entered a new year, we’ve seen the emergence of a new danger, in the form of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The first cases were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province on 31 December 2019 when a number of people were diagnosed with pneumonia like symptoms, and since…
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