A redundancy is where the employee’s job is no longer needed. Depending on your terms of employment and the nature of the company, some businesses offer severance pay to those employees being made redundant.

An unfair dismissal is when an employer terminates an employee’s contract or forces an employee to resign, in a ‘harsh, unjust or unreasonable’ manner.

Where an action is taken by an employer against an employee, if the employer:

• dismisses or refuses to employ someone;
• discriminated against an employee or prospective employee
• injured an employee during their employment (for example, demotions, reducing hours etc..)

Sometimes employers do not meet their contractual obligations and fail to pay employees their entitlements such as; wages, salary, leave entitlements, bonuses or commissions. If this is the case, you may be able to recover these unpaid entitlements.

A whistleblower is an individual who reports to management any kind of information or activity that is being undertaken in the company that is deemed illegal, dishonest or unethical. The Corporations Act provides significant safeguards for whistleblowers and makes it a criminal offence to victimise one because of a protected disclosure.

Workplace discrimination is where an employee is treated in a hurtful, degrading, demeaning and unfair manner within the workplace because of their ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, family responsibilities, religion etc. Whereas, workplace bullying is repeated, and unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee or a group of employees that creates a risk to their health and safety.

Where employment has been terminated due to serious misconduct in the workplace. Examples of misconduct include:

• safety breaches;
• assault;
• drugs and alcohol matters; or
• theft of company property.

A well drafted employment contract protects the commercial interests of your business, both during and after their employment:

Employment contract matters include:

• drafting and negotiation of contracts;
• breaches of the employment contract;
• drafting of confidentiality and non-compete and non-solicitation clauses; and
• drafting of contracts for independent contractors.