Australia: To imply or not to imply – Mutual trust and confidence in employment contracts

The High Court has unanimously held that there is no implied term of mutual trust and confidence in Australian employment contracts.

In August 2013, a majority of a full court of the Federal Court found that all Australian employment contracts had an implied term of mutual trust and confidence. Specifically, the Court held that an employer had breached the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, when it made an executive manager redundant for failure […]

By | November 28th, 2014 ||

Australia: Employee Incentive Schemes (EIS): update on ASIC relief

On 31 October 2014, ASIC updated its relief relating to employee incentive schemes.

The introduction of these Class Orders represents, in some respects, a marked change in ASIC’s position in relation to such schemes.

The increased flexibility and broadened scope of the relief will likely lead to more listed and unlisted companies offering equity participation through employee incentive schemes to more of their employees.

In this Alert, Partner Nicole Radice and Solicitor Shilpa Dougall summarise the key […]

By | November 27th, 2014 ||

Australia: NSW Supreme Court clarifies inspectors' powers under sections 155 and 171 of the WHS Act

Introduction
The recent decision of Hunter Quarries Pty Ltd v New South Wales (Hunter Quarries Decision),1 has provided welcome clarification regarding the operation of an inspector’s powers under sections 155 and 171 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) (WHS Act).
Key Points
The key points from the Hunter Quarries Decision are as follows.

First, once an inspector has exercised the statutory power of entry at a workplace, including in order to pursue an investigation into […]

By | November 27th, 2014 ||