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Introduction


Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Employment Law Handbook, your practical guide to Australian employment law.

This handbook will help you stay on top of ever-changing employment laws, manage your employees more effectively and safeguard your rights as an employer. With the Employment Law Handbook, you can rest assured that you have everything you need to achieve legal compliance in your business right at your fingertips.

Breaking down the handbook components

In the Employment Law Handbook, you receive:

• Unlimited access to every chapter. Our Handbook is comprised of chapters that focus on areas of employment law. These chapters break down everything you need to know about a topic – including the law, tips, case law and examples – to help you meet your obligations.

• Access to case law. View a library of case analyses to see how the law has been applied.

• Access to Q&As. Read common questions and answers from our expert team of lawyers at Holding Redlich.

• Valuable resources. Download word document checklists, templates, step-by-steps and fact sheets to use in your workplace. Our suite of more than 250 resources includes a range of template contracts and policies that are essential to most businesses.

• Automatic sign-up to our weekly Workplace Bulletin – employment law news sent straight to your inbox every week.

• Access to the Workplace Helpdesk. Have a general question about employment law? Send it through our Workplace Helpdesk and receive a response from our expert team of lawyers at Holding Redlich.

Understanding our chapter format

We know your time is valuable. That’s why we have designed the Employment Law Handbook to help you quickly and easily find the answers you need when you need them.

One of the ways we do this is by breaking up chapter content into different segments. These segments each have a specific style, with the most common shown below:

Case Law: Newton v APC (2019)

In Newton v APC (2019), an executive’s employment contract entitled the employer to move the employee into a different position that was suitable, having regard to the employee’s skills, training and experience.

The Court ruled that, given the employee had high-level management skills and experience managing a large team of employees, a position that does not require that level of skill or experience is to be regarded as less suitable than a position that does.

Caution: Dismissal can also be effected by an employer’s repudiation of the employment contract.
Definition: Long Service LeaveLong service leave is paid leave available to employees who have worked for the same employer over a long period of time(between 7 and 15 years, depending on which state or territory legislation applies).
ExampleRed Inc. issues a memo to a commissioned salesperson that sets out changes to the employee’s commission structure, which will take effect in 5 weeks. If the salesperson does not raise any objection to the change and continues to work as usual, then the express terms of the employment contract will be varied to give effect to the change upon the expiration of the 5 weeks’ notice.
Important: If you summarily dismiss an employee and they make a claim for notice pay, you will have to prove that the conduct justified summary dismissal.
Remember: If you are dismissing the employee for reasons of redundancy, you may have consultation requirements under a modern award or enterprise agreement.
Tip: You can dismiss an employee summarily for serious misconduct while they are serving a period of notice.

These segments help you to easily identify what you are searching for. For example, if you are seeking a case law on a specific topic, you can go to the chapter addressing the topic, and cast your eyes over the content to find the case law with ease.

Keeping on top of employment law

Employment laws change all the time. We won’t let you get left behind! The Employment Law Handbook receives regular updates to ensure it remains current and up-to-date with any changes to the law.

We also date our content so you know when it was last reviewed by our team of lawyers.

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