A Senate Select Committee report on the Future of Work and Workers handed down this week after a year-long inquiry, gives some insight (which is likely to be startling to most employers) into the likely Labor legislative agenda in the workplace relations space if there is a change of government at the next election. The employment and IR related recommendations from the Committee’s majority (dominated by Labor, Greens and Independents) include the following that have…

Over 40 million people around the world are trapped in conditions of modern slavery, according to research from the Walk Free Foundation and the International Labour Organization. The fight against modern slavery is fragmented. Governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and law enforcement agencies are engaged in their own fights at various levels (local, regional, national, global) with little collaboration. In increasingly globalised markets, there is growing regulatory and consumer pressure on businesses to eliminate the exploitative…

Traditionally, alternative labour models – including outsourcing and contracting – have been used by business to defray cost and risk and deal with workflow fluctuations. Today’s environment is creating new challenges for organising and engaging alternative labour. Here’s 5 key reasons why: Increased accountability for those at the ‘top’ Changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 in 2017 introduced new vulnerable workers laws under which certain corporate group holding companies and franchisor businesses can be…

Allegations of sexual harassment have dominated headlines, most visibly with the #MeToo campaign. Sexual harassment complaints, and the laws that attempt to curb the behaviours, are not new. Despite regulation, sexual harassment is still occurring in workplaces. Why? One answer may be that organisations guard against sexual harassment through policy and lecture style training without reference to the broader workplace context. To counter this, an alternate approach may be to use existing risk management frameworks,…

The introduction of the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Bill 2018 on 28 June 2018 sets an imperative for businesses operating in Australia to know, and show, how they are identifying and addressing the risks of modern slavery. Reporting Requirement At the centre of the Bill is the Modern Slavery Reporting Requirement: a mandatory requirement that entities based, or operating, in Australia, which have an annual consolidated revenue of more than AUD $100 million, report annually…

The NSW Parliament yesterday passed the Modern Slavery Bill 2018. It is now awaiting assent and a commencement date, however businesses should not wait and begin planning for the new obligations. Supporting regulations will follow that deal with the finer details even without these, businesses should now urgently consider whether they will be caught by this legislation and consider how they are going to meet their compliance obligations. There will be significant maximum penalties applying to…