Amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) take effect from 1 July 2019 ushering in significant changes to Australia’s whistleblowing laws.[1] Chief among the key changes is a requirement on public companies and large proprietary companies[2] to have a compliant whistleblowing policy by 1 January 2020. A failure to have such a policy will be a criminal offence attracting a maximum penalty of $126,000. As it…

As reported in an earlier article on this blog, Marie Boland (former Executive Director of SafeWork SA) undertook the first review of the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws and delivered her report on 25 February 2019 (Report). The Report concluded that the model WHS laws are operating as intended and the “three-tier framework” (the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act, model WHS regulations and the model Codes) was effective and widely supported…

In Thoma v. Schaefer Elevator Components Inc., 2019 BCSC 100, Mr. Thoma’s employment contract allowed his employer, Schaefer Elevator, to terminate his employment without cause on six months’ notice by providing Mr. Thoma his “contractually agreed remuneration during the six months’ notice period.”  Mr. Thoma claimed that this included payment of an annual bonus and that he was entitled to receive it.  Schaefer Elevator terminated his employment without cause on October 31, 2017. The…

The French authorities have been very prolific in the area of effecting reforms to employment law, and 2019 will not be an exception to this general rule (although perhaps less so than was the case in 2017 and 2018). First, in 2019, a certain number of reforms promulgated in 2017 and 2018 will either come into force become fully effective: As of January 2019, all companies have become subject to the requirement to withhold income…

Despite Brexit dominating the headlines there are several key changes to employment law coming into force in April 2019. Extension of itemised pay statements to workers, not just employees – 6 April 2019   Currently, only employees are required to be given an itemised pay statement. From 6 April the Employment Rights Act (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 and the Employment Rights Act (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) (No 2) Order 2018 are due to…

On the scope of subject access requests under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GRPR) in the context of compliance and whistle-blowing regimes, the Regional Labour Court (Landesarbeitsgericht) of Stuttgart decided that an employer was required not only to provide an employee with the records containing performance and behavioural data, but also to disclose information regarding internal investigations. This is the first reported successful enforcement of a data subject access right under Article 15 GDPR…

Earlier this year Gary Lavin and his company Multi-Run Roofing Pty Ltd (Multi-Run Roofing) were found guilty by a jury of reckless conduct under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) (the Act), following the death of a worker in July 2014. Mr Lavin was sentenced to 12 months in prison (suspended after 4); the first custodial sentence handed out to an individual in Queensland for breach of the Act.  Multi-Run Roofing was also…