Blog
New Australian workplace laws have broadened the definition of “coercion and misrepresentation” and lowered the tests by which it may be established that an employer coerced or misrepresented their circumstances to an employee in the process of terminating them.
In simple terms, it’s now riskier than ever for an Australian employer (especially one hot under the collar) to terminate even an unsatisfactory employee. Add to that situation the fact that, under The Fair Work Act, a union can now seek an injunction in the Federal Court or Federal Magistrates Court to prevent dismissal of an employee, and that the burden of proof has been reversed so that the employer must prove that they did not breach the act, and the employing-people stakes just got a whole lot higher.