Employment & Workplace Lawyers Australia

The relationship between an employer and an employee is, beyond our families, one of the most important relationships in our lives. Unfortunately, like all relationships, sometimes things can go wrong. For example:

1. Have you been dismissed unfairly, or unlawfully, from your job?
2. Have you been punished by your workplace for doing something that you are allowed or entitled to do, such as taking leave or making a complaint?
3. Has your employment contract been breached?
4. Are you being treated differently to other employees on the basis of your sex, race, disability or some other attribute?
5. Are you being bullied or harassed by another employee?

 If any of the above circumstances apply to you, you may be entitled to damages. As Australian human rights lawyers, we specialise in employment law, and we can help.

Types Of Employment Law We Can Help With:

Unfair Dismissal

If you have been dismissed in the past 21 days, or you are about to be dismissed, you may be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal if your dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable. This might mean;

• There was no valid reason for the dismissal related to your capacity or conduct;
• You were not notified of your dismissal, or the reason for it; and/or
• You were not given a proper warning or proper opportunity to respond.

There can also be other reasons why a dismissal might be considered unfair.

If you have been the subject of an unfair dismissal, we can help.

Breach of Contract

Employment contracts govern the rights and obligations of employers and employees in Australia. In most cases, employees sign a contract of employment upon commencing with an employer.

Importantly, an employer must ensure that they provide the employee with what they promised when they hired them. This includes leave entitlements, safe and appropriate working conditions and a scope of work comparable to what they were actually hired for.

If you believe that your contract of employment has been breached, and you have suffered damage as a result, we can help.

Discrimination

In Australia, it is illegal to discriminate against someone in the context of their employment on the basis of a “protected attribute”. This means, if you are being treated differently to somebody else on the basis of one of these attributes, your employer may have breached the law, and you may be owed damages. The attributes include:

• Race;
• colour;
• sex;
• sexual orientation;
• age;
• physical or mental disability;
• marital status;
• family or carer’s responsibilities;
• pregnancy;
• religion;
• political opinion;
• national extraction;
• social origin;
• breastfeeding;
• gender identity;
• intersex status; and
• experiencing family and domestic violence.

In addition, if you have been discriminated against on the basis of your medical record, you may be entitled to make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

If you have suffered from discrimination in the context of your employment, we can help.

Bullying and Harassment

Bullying can happen at work when one or more people behave unreasonably towards another worker or group of workers, which could create a risk to their health and safety.

Bullying can include:

• behaving aggressively towards others
• teasing or playing practical jokes
• pressuring someone to behave inappropriately
• excluding someone from work-related events
• or making unreasonable work demands.

To be liable for bullying in the workplace, the person or group who is doing the bullying must have engaged in the conduct at least twice.

If you have been bullied at work, we can help.

Sexual Harassment at Work

Under the Fair Work Act, sexual harassment at work happens when a worker or group of workers:

• makes an unwelcome sexual advance
• makes an unwelcome request for sexual favours
• engages in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature about another worker.

To be sexual harassment, it has to be reasonable to expect that there is a possibility that the worker being sexually harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated.

Some forms of sexual harassment can also be considered bullying if the behaviour is repeated or continuous. But unlike bullying, sexual harassment does not need to be continuous or repeated behaviour, it can be a one-off event. There is also no need to establish a risk to health and safety.

It is well established that employers are liable for acts of harassment and discrimination that occur in their workplaces unless they can demonstrate that:

1. They have taken all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment from occurring in their workplaces; and
2. They have responded appropriately to resolve incidents of discrimination and harassment.

Since 2014, damages awards for Sexual Harassment at work have increased significantly, in line with the community’s increasing intolerance of the issue, even in cases where there has been no recognisable lasting personal injury.

This is largely because of the case of Richardson v Oracle Corporation Australia Pty Ltd [2014] in which the full court of the Federal Court awarded $130,000 to an employee who had been sexually harassed by her colleague at work. The Court’s award was a recognition that higher amounts should be awarded in sexual harassment matters in order to reflect prevailing community standards in relation to the issue. This trend has since continued, with the case of Green v State of Queensland [2017] QCAT seeing the Tribunal award $156,051 to an employee who was the subject of a prank with sexual connotations, even though there was no recognisable lasting personal injury caused. Of the global award, $70,000 was awarded for pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and the offence, embarrassment, humiliation and intimidation suffered. This is only one example of many.

If you have been a victim of sexual harassment at work, we can help.

General Protections

In Australia, the Fair Work Act protects the rights of employees of work. These rights include:

• the right to take leave and other entitlements
• the right to be part of and engage in a union
• the right to be paid what you are owed
• the right to make a complaint and not to be punished for it
• the right to do your job in peace; and
• the right to not be discriminated against

If an employer takes adverse action against you because you exercised one of your workplace rights, then you might be able to bring a claim called a ‘General Protections’ claim against your employer.

If your employer has taken adverse action against you because of a workplace right, we can help.