Redundancy and alternate employment
Tony Cavanagh is a Director at Mullane & Lindsay in Newcastle and specialises in commercial dispute resolution & litigation, and employment law.
A ‘redundancy’ occurs when an employer no longer requires a given job to be performed by anyone. Generally, in that situation, an entitlement to a redundancy payment arises. There are some exceptions – one of which is where the employer “obtains other acceptable employment for the employee”. In that situation the employer can apply to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to reduce the amount of redundancy pay that would otherwise be required.
The issue was recently considered by the Full Bench of the FWC. A security company, FBIS, lost a contract. An alternate contractor was appointed. FBIS took a number of steps to facilitate its employees being engaged by the new contractor and 49 of 53 employees were offered and accepted positions with the new contractor on very similar terms to their previous jobs with FBIS. FBIS then applied to reduce the amount of redundancy paid to the workers, under Section 120. It was originally successful, but the decision was reversed on appeal. The matter then went to the Full Bench. Read the rest of this entry »
Hunter YoungGun | Kristy Nunn
Kristy Nunn is a Director in the Dispute Resolution & Litigation Law group and has been with Mullane & Lindsay since 2004.
She is also a member of the Law Society of New South Wales, the Newcastle Law Society, the Australian Insurance Law Association and the Women Lawyers Association of NSW.
Kristy is motivated by meeting and exceeding client expectations and ensuring her work continues to enhance her professional reputation.
Property division and life expectancy
by Rose Laffan
Rose Laffan is a Senior Solicitor at Mullane & Lindsay in Newcastle and practises extensively in Family, Relationship and Matrimonial Law
In the recent decision of Fontana and Fontana the Full Court of the Family Court considered an appeal where the wife was to receive 56.5% of the assets and 55% of the superannuation. In relation to the non-superannuation assets the trial judge found that the wife had made contributions that equated to 52% but that an adjustment of 4.5% should be made for future needs, bringing the total to 56.5%. Read the rest of this entry »
Traps with electronic signatures
Tony Cavanagh is a Director at Mullane & Lindsay in Newcastle and specialises in commercial dispute resolution & litigation, and employment law.
Late in 2015 the NSW Supreme Court heard a dispute relating to a personal guarantee of a credit account, apparently signed with an electronic signature.
A building company (IDH) had a credit account with a building supplies company (Williams). IDH had an internal system allowing directors to attach signatures electronically to documents. Williams required personal guarantees from directors of building companies such as IDH. The case related to whether one of three directors, a Mr Crocker, had in fact attached his electronic signature to the personal guarantee, or authorised someone else to do so (or whether he had later ‘ratified’ the guarantee, even if he did not initially sign it). Read the rest of this entry »
Does serious misconduct always justify termination?
Tony Cavanagh is a Director at Mullane & Lindsay in Newcastle and specialises in commercial dispute resolution & litigation, and employment law.
Serious safety breaches are often regarded as sufficient justification for immediate termination of employment. The rationale, at least in part, is that employers have obligations for the workplace safety of all workers and that serious safety breaches by one worker, can put all workers at risk. However this is not automatically the case. Read the rest of this entry »