Australia: Employment Litigation/ Tribunals

In the first substantive rulings on Australia's right to disconnect laws, the South Australian Employment Tribunal has determined that an Adelaide hairdressing salon did not breach its apprentices' rights despite sending frequent out-of-hours messages via TikTok and Snapchat. The Tribunal drew a critical distinction between unwelcome communication and actually preventing employees from disconnecting, establishing that subjective pressure without demonstrable consequences does not constitute a breach.

A Queensland District Court case examines whether a residential care facility adequately protected a worker who suffered psychiatric injury after being threatened by a young person in her care. The case explores critical questions about staffing requirements, risk management protocols, and the impact of undisclosed pre-existing conditions on compensation claims.

The Full Court of the Supreme Court of Tasmania has ruled on a critical question affecting workers' compensation claims: what happens when there's a gap in medical certification exceeding 14 days? The court examined whether employers must continue paying weekly compensation when they elect to treat a new certificate as a disputed claim, balancing employer rights against worker protections under Tasmania's workers compensation legislation.

In this episode of Inside Employment, Natalie Gaspar and Lucy Boyd are joined by HSF Kramer Disputes Partner, Melissa Gladstone to explore the rise of employment class actions in Australia and why they have become one of the fastest-growing litigation risks for employers.

In this episode of Inside IR, Rohan Doyle and Mitchell Brennan use the recent Full Federal Court decision in AMWU v Opal Packaging Australia (May 2026) to explore the real-world implications of complexity in enterprise agreements. With four decision-makers across three forums arriving at four different interpretations of a relatively common status quo clause, the case is a stark illustration of enterprise agreement complexity, and how status quo clauses can be a source of competitive advantage for employers...

Employers who require employees to work from the office, who have historically worked from home and have children, may find their efforts frustrated by successful applications for flexible work arrangements...

Employers can dismiss employees for key jamming if clear remote work policies exist, a thorough investigation is conducted, and a fair disciplinary process is followed.

This briefing note sets out an overview of the decision in Medibank Private Limited v McClure [2026] FCAFC 38, including key implications for employment, industrial relations and safety practitioners.

In a recent Fair Work Commission decision, an employee was awarded nearly $7,000 compensation due to errors in procedural fairness, despite the employee being found to have engaged in misconduct, including distribution of pornographic material in the workplace and driving infringements.