One fine Tuesday morning, George doesn’t show up for work.  There’s no phone call, email or text message to advise he won’t be in so by 10:30 am, you try contacting him.  There’s no answer so you leave a message.  You also try calling his next of kin as advised on his HR file but they don’t respond either.  Further attempts are made over the course of the next three days to contact George but you still don’t know where he is or if he is coming back.  You have a business to run and you need people to either show up for their rostered hours or advise that they need to utilise some of their personal leave.  So what can you do?

A case involving a fast food giant, a specific shift start time, a required arrival time, a sneaky cigarette, a ladder, a broken leg and an overturned WorkCover claim all came together recently in a Queensland court with a decision that may have far reaching implications for businesses throughout Australia.  How is this even possible you wonder….

​The hot weather is just around the corner and of course that can mean excessively hot work environments for some employees, especially those working onsite, in factories and in warehouses. Excessive heat has potential to cause a significant safety hazard in work places that can lead to symptoms such skin irritations, dizziness, dehydration, excessive sweating, heat stroke or, in the extreme, death. 


So how do you protect your employees while balancing the needs of your business?

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Flexible working arrangements have become the new normal in workplaces in recent years.  Until recently, it was mostly working parents that requested greater flexibility in the workplace but over time it has become far more common for a diverse range of employees to request a transition to flexible working arrangements for a variety of reasons.  

So as a business leader, should you consider these requests? 


​Yes!  In a perfect world, all businesses would be able to offer their employees such flexibility as there are significant benefits to you as an employer, as well as to your employees, but in reality, there are many things to consider.  

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​For some, the freedom of choosing what they wear to work each day is a joy – for others, it is just another chore that needs sorting in the morning!  For the one quarter of workplaces in Australia that have a uniform for their employees, this leaves a considerable number of us   choosing what we wear to work.   So how do these daily choices impact your businesses and what ability to you have to exert any control over how your employees present themselves? 

​For many of us, it is difficult to comprehend that Domestic and Family Violence is a prevalent societal problem in Australia.  Sadly though, it is a major issue that does not discriminate based on gender, financial status, education level, cultural identity or age.  In response to this issue, one area of support that is now enshrined within our Modern Awards is a provision for leave to support those who need it most.