We are delighted to announce that the Thomson Reuters’ IR & Workplace Relations Conference is taking place on 15 Oct 2024 in Sydney and Online. The conference will explore and address the key issues in IR and employment law.

Employers face a multitude of legal challenges as employment laws and policies rapidly evolve, HR professionals need to stay abreast of the latest legal developments and navigate these challenges. A raft of measures are affecting casuals, contractors, gig workers, labour hire, right to flexible work, conducting effective employee investigations, as well as the implications of industrial relations reforms, and the introduction of criminal penalties for ‘wage theft’.

This is a must-attend event for anyone dealing with the grey areas and challenges in employment legislation and regulation.

6 hours live and online.
Conference attendance earns 6 CPD points in substantive law.

For any event enquiries email eventsanz@thomsonreuters.com

Register Now!
We look forward to you joining us.

Event highlights

• Conference Chair - Nick Ruskin, Partner, K&L Gates
• Implications of Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing the Loopholes) Bill 2023 & Right to Disconnect Tony Woods, Partner, Lander & Rogers
• Preventing employee underpayments: wage theft or payroll mistake and new penalties Secure Pay Jobs Act Brigid Maher, Partner, Baker McKenzie
• Positive duty and workplace sexual harassment prevention Fay Calderone, Partner, Hall & Wilcox
• Recent changes to working from home and encouraging employees to return to the workplace Sina Zevari, Executive Counsel, Workdynamic Australia
• How to conduct an effective workplace investigation Luis Izzo, Managing Director - Sydney Workplace, Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
• The Complexities of Collective Bargaining. Modern Awards and Enterprise Agreements Harriet Eager, Partner, MinterEllison
• Managing industrial action: protected and unprotected activity most significant and complex industrial disputes Talia Firth, Partner, Ashurst
• Terminations and performance management - preventing unfair dismissal case, Adverse Action and General Protections Claims Seamus Burke, Partner Workplace, Sparke Helmore Lawyers
• Redundancy Recap Masterclass Amber Sharp, Partner, McCullough Robertson

 

Who should attend?

• Human Resources Directors, Human Resource Manager and Advisors
• Employee Relations Managers, People & Culture Managers, HR Business Partners
• Employment Lawyers
• In-house Counsel
• Employer Associations & Unions

 

Agenda

8:30AM
Registration opens

9:00AM
Welcome from Conference Chair

Nick Ruskin, Partner, K&L Gates

9:05 AM
Implications of Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing the Loopholes) Bill 2023 & Right to Disconnect Bill
• Casual employee pathways implications and practical tips
• Advantages and disadvantages of engaging a contractor for labour-hire.
• Labour hire agreements and avoiding the pitfalls of “sham” contracting.
• Gig economy and transport worker employment changes from FWC
• Right to Disconnect Bill to the National Employment Standards
• Determining ‘reasonable’ and ‘unreasonable’ additional hours

Tony Woods, Partner, Lander & Rogers

9:45AM
Preventing employee underpayments: wage theft or payroll mistake and new penalties Secure Pay Jobs Act
There is a spate of recent high-profile wage underpayments cases have shown that no industry is immune from lost wages. Whether instances of underpayment are deliberate, misinterpretation of Australia’s complex awards or payroll function error, organisations need to protect themselves from wage underpayment risk:
• New penalties Secure Pay Jobs Act
• Practical considerations in employee underpayments
• Criminalisation of wage theft in Queensland and Victoria
• Implications for accessorial liability for wage theft for managers

Brigid Maher, Partner, Baker McKenzie

10:25AM
Networking and refreshment break

10:50AM
Positive duty and workplace sexual harassment prevention
• Outlining the key reforms to the prohibition against sexual harassment in the workplace
• Case examples of sexual harassment claims in the Fair Work Commission
• Update on the Australian Human Rights Commission’s enforcement of the positive duty
• Strategies for implementing a preventative approach in the workplace
• What’s next - additional recommendations from the Respect@Work report

Fay Calderone, Partner, Hall & Wilcox

11:30 AM
Recent changes to working from home and encouraging employees to return to the workplace
• Anticipating changes to the workplace culture: has flexible work become a non-negotiable right?
• Recent FWC decisions

Sina Zevari, Executive Counsel, Workdynamic Australia

12:10PM
Lunch and networking break

1:00PM
How to conduct an effective workplace investigation
• Reviewing complaints, investigations and disciplinary action processes
• Undertaking compliance reviews of existing systems, policies and procedures

Luis Izzo, Managing Director - Sydney Workplace, Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors

1:40PM
The Complexities of Collective Bargaining. Modern Awards and Enterprise Agreements
• Drafting single-enterprise, multi-enterprise, and Greenfields agreements
• Preparing essential statutory documents
• Negotiating with trade unions
• Arbitration in the Fair Work Commission
• Update on Modern Awards

Harriet Eager, Partner, MinterEllison

2:20PM
Managing industrial action: protected and unprotected industrial action and managing complex industrial disputes
• Options for managing protected and unprotected industrial action
• Impact of recent legislative changes on managing industrial disputes
• Termination of industrial action, intractable bargaining and workplace determinations
• Overview of recent cases involving complex industrial disputes

Talia Firth, Partner, Ashurst

3:00PM
Networking and refreshment break

3:20PM
Terminations and performance management - preventing unfair dismissal case, Adverse Action and General Protections Claims
• Performance management, disciplinary procedures
• Attending to serious misconduct
• Termination and preventing unfair dismissal cases.
• Lessons from recent court decisions

Seamus Burke, Partner Workplace, Sparke Helmore Lawyers

4:00PM
Redundancy Recap Masterclass
This session will review common trips and traps, provide an overview recent significant decisions including the Full Federal Court decision of Helensburgh Coal Pty Ltd v Bartley [2024] FCAFC 45, and deliver practical advice on implementation.

Amber Sharp, Partner, McCullough Robertson

4:40PM
CLOSING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR AND END OF CONFERENCE

 

For event enquiries, please email eventsanz@thomsonreuters.com