Australia: Working at best practice – the benefits of Individual Flexibility Agreements

I have acted for several businesses that have had claims made against them from an employee for under payment including penalties, overtime and leave loading. In each of these matters, the businesses were paying the employee above the award rate and in some cases were also paying the employee a “bonus”.

However, as our clients did not have Individual Flexibility Agreements (“IFA”) in place to vary the requirements under the award to make a “loaded” […]

By | November 9th, 2014 ||

Canada: Case Brief: On Workers’ Compensation For Federal Government Employees

The Supreme Court of Canada upheld an Alberta Court of Appeal decision addressing the principles of compensation application to federal government employees covered inMartin v. Alberta (Workers’ Compensation Board), 2014 SCC 25.

The Alberta Court had restored a workers’ compensation Appeals Commission decision that had assessed and denied the compensation claim of a Parks Canada warden by reference to the entitlement criteria set out in an Alberta WCB policy. The Court of Appeal held that […]

By | November 7th, 2014 ||

UK: Overtime Ruling A Passport For Higher Employment Costs – EAT Finds That Holiday Pay SHOULD Include Overtime

Summary and implications

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has handed down judgment this morning in the test case of Fulton v Bear Scotland Limited [2014].

The EAT found:

Where an employee is required to work overtime these payments should be included in an employer’s calculations of holiday pay; and
An employee’s claim for unpaid holiday pay under the ‘unlawful deductions from wages’ legislation is time limited. If more than three months has elapsed between each “deduction” (i.e. between each […]

By | November 7th, 2014 ||