Untangling Employment Law for Small Business - Recent Changes from FairWork

By Alexi Boyd | Tuesday February 5

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services
Date: 5 February 2019

Policy makers are trying their best to ensure employees are treated fairly employers but when it comes to government decisions it feels like, for small business, that fair = complicated. The more they talk about cutting red tape the more we as businesses trip over it. And as small businesses we WANT to look after our employees because without them we don’t grow or even function.

We can engage with our politicians and try and understand them the mayhem each of these seemingly small changes can mean to us on a day-to-day level but in the meantime you need to ensure that you’re getting it right. Now. Sadly, ignorance is no excuse and in equal measure most of us don’t have an employment lawyer on staff to ask for advice.

Just when you think you’ve sorted out your payroll, HR and employment issues you read about yet another new “interpretation” of the law. For example late last year the Federal Court made a decision about casual employees… and boy is it a doozy of a change.

Luckily we have another great expert on hand. Michelle Archer has many years of experience working in the employment law field

Welcome to the show Michelle.

Topics we’ll be covering:

  • What’s the  difference between different TYPES of employment
    • Casual
    • Part time / full time permanent
    • Non permanent? Fixed term?
  • Casual employees - how to determine the relationship you have with your staff and what’s changed recently with the court decision about the way you interact?
  • Food & retail award
    • What does that mean for those small businesses with long-term casual staff
    • Do we really have to back-pay those entitlements if it was determined they were part time for all those years?
  • How can a business protect themselves into the future when starting a relationship with their employees?
    • What are the musts for starting this relationship and what do you have to do at certain points in time?
  • How does unfair dismissal laws work and how are they different for small business

To find out more about Michelle find her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-archer-b676853b/