The Law:

Employees can refuse unreasonable work contact outside of business hours without the risk of adverse action from their employer.

The Update:

All Australian employers must abide by the Right to Disconnect laws. Small business employers were required to follow this from 26 August 2025.

The Employer’s Action:

If you are a small business employer, review the legislation and make sure you understand your obligations, and your employees’ rights under these laws.

The Law:

FWAs are employee-initiated requests to adjust working conditions to better suit the individual employee’s needs and can be broad in scope. This can include flexible start and finish times, working from home, job sharing, flexible rostering, etc.

An employer can only refuse an eligible FWA request if they have:

• Discussed the request with the relevant employee and made a genuine effort to reach an agreement;
• Been unable to reach an agreement;
• Had regard to the consequences of a refusal for the employee; and
• Determined that the refusal was made on reasonable business grounds.

The Update:

A recent case clarified that the test for whether an employer must approve a FWA request is whether the employer had reasonable business grounds to refuse it, not whether the employer “could” or ”should” accommodate the FWA request. Employers should focus on whether reasonable business grounds for a refusal existed.

Further, employees must also clearly explain how their request relates to their specific circumstances, not just rely on a personal attribute.

Terry Hutchinson v Cleanco Queensland Ltd [2025] FWC 2887

A separate decision emphasises that employers should:

• Give equal weight to all  four statutory grounds for refusal;
• Assess and document the impact of refusal on the employee; and
• Provide timely, detailed written responses that show compliance with the Fair Work Act.

Naden v Catholic Schools Broken Bay Ltd (as trustee for Catholic Schools Broken Bay Trust) [2025] FWCFB 82

The Employer’s Action:

When considering a FWA request, make sure you tick off all considerations you are required to follow at law, and document everything (including conversations, notes, letters, and any decisions made). If you are unsure whether you are refusing a FWA request on reasonable business grounds, call in some expert help from us.

The Law:

Intentional underpayment may subject employers to criminal charges, including fines and/or imprisonment of up to:

• $7,825,000 for corporations;
• $1,565,000 for individuals; and
• 10 years’ imprisonment for individuals.

This does not include where an underpayment was an honest mistake.

The Update:

This law came into effect from 1 January 2025.

The Employer’s Action:

Check to make sure you are paying all employees at or above the minimum rates required, and that it is on time and accurate. Regularly audit your payroll processes. Take underpayment complaints from employees seriously and conduct proper investigations into potential underpayments. If you do not rectify any underpayment, you may be subject to criminal penalties.

The Law:

Advertised pay rates on job ads must meet the minimum rates required by the relevant governing award or enterprise agreement (or, failing application of either of these, the National Minimum Wage).

The Update:

We have observed an emerging trend whereby the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) is cracking down on employers who advertise jobs at pay rates below the relevant minimum rate. This aligns with the FWO’s and Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) focus on protecting migrant workers.

The Employer’s Action:

When advertising roles on job boards, make sure the wages listed are at or above the minimum rate of pay for that role, and that the wage range is accurate for the role described in the ad.

The Law:

Employers must keep records of an employee’s work hours. In the case of an alleged underpayment, the court will look to these records to determine whether the employee was underpaid.

The Update:

If an employee alleges they were underpaid by working certain hours, and the employer does not have sufficient records to prove the hours the employee actually worked (and that the employees were not underpaid), the Court will side with the employee. Where the employer is part of a franchise network, there is room for the head franchisor to be found liable as a person involved in the underpayments.

Annualised wage arrangements do not exempt employers from this requirement to keep records of employee work hours.

Fair Work Ombudsman v Woolworths Group Limited & Ors [2025] FCA 1092

The Employer’s Action:

If you are the head franchisor of a network of franchisees, you have an obligation to hold records about employees’ hours of work. We recommend you increase your oversight of your franchisees to make sure work hours are being recorded and filed.

The Law:

There are limitations on when fixed-term contracts can be used. This includes that they cannot be for longer than 2 years, along with other renewal limitations. These limitations have applied from 6 December 2023 but did not apply to specific industries which rely on fixed-term contracting (and would be negatively impacted by these limitations due to funding, industry-based, transitory, or other constraints).

The Update:

From 1 November 2025, the higher education, charity/NFP sector, medical research, and professional sporting industries will be subject to these fixed-term contract limitations (with a special exemption).

The Employer’s Action:

If you are an employer in one of these industries that has a high volume of fixed-term contracting arrangements, contact us to assist you in putting a plan together to manage fixed-term contract renewals in your organisation.

The Law:

Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety legislation broadly governs psychosocial safety but did not have specific regulations listing how the law applied to psychosocial hazards and how employers should handle them.

The Update:

Psychosocial safety regulations are being introduced into Victorian legislation from 1 December 2025. There is no grace period for compliance – meaning you must comply with the new laws on the date they enter into effect. Victorian employers will have a duty to identify psychosocial hazards, implement and maintain control measures, and continuously review and consult on risks. This obligation applies to both employees and contractors.

The Employer’s Action:

Keep an eye on the final draft legislation in November to know what your obligations will be from 1 December, and create a plan for compliance before the date the law is in effect.

The Law:

An employer can only make someone genuinely redundant if the job is no longer needed, and the employer has genuinely tried to find another suitable job for the person before ending their employment.

The Update:

The High Court held that the FWC can look at “all the circumstances” when considering whether a redundancy is genuine. Specifically, here, the employer could have made jobs available for its employees to keep working if it could have ended or changed its contractor arrangements to allow for this. Redeployment does not require a vacant role to be available, just available work within the enterprise that could be done by the employee.

Helensburgh Coal Pty Ltd v Bartley (2025) 424 ALR 1

The Employer’s Action:

During a redundancy process, employers should:

• Consider all reasonable redeployment options, including contractor roles;
• Look beyond vacant roles when considering redeployment; and
• make sure you have thoroughly documented all redeployment options before finalising any redundancies.