2018 All States Tuesday 25 December – Christmas Day Wednesday 26 December – Boxing Day Queensland and New South Wales Monday 1 October – Queen’s Birthday / Labour Day Victoria Friday 28 September – AFL Grand Final Tuesday 6 November – Melbourne Cup 2019 All States Tuesday 1 January – New Years Day Monday 28 January – Australia Day Friday 19 April – Good Friday Saturday 20 April – Easter Saturday Monday 22 April – Easter Monday Thursday 25 April – ANZAC Day Wednesday 25 December – Christmas Day Thursday 26 December – Boxing Day Queensland Sunday 21 April – Easter Sunday Monday 6 May – Labour Day Wednesday 14 August – Show Day (BNE) Monday 7 October – Queen’s Birthday [if ppt][endif] New South

FWC Approval Trends The trends in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) approval process arising from the central assessment team are as follows: The deduction of pay – The FWC advises that such clauses are inconsistent with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). There are limited situations when an employer may deduct from an employee’s wages but, for the most part, this is not permitted. Such deductions require authority by the employee and, typically, must be for the employee’s benefit. Loaded hourly rates – For loaded rates agreements, the recent FWC ruling (Loaded Rates Agreements 2018) provided for an examination of existing roster patterns as well as the potential for roster patterns to change in con

A Time to Review Casual Engagements In a recent Federal Court decision that may have major implications for Companies in the construction industry, especially Labour Hire Companies, the definition of a casual employee has been called into question. The Full Federal Court of Australia in WorkPac Pty Ltd v Skene [2018] FCAFC 131 (16 August 2018) found that a casual employee engaged under an enterprise agreement was not in fact a casual employee by reason of the continuous, regular and predictable nature of the employee’s pattern of work. Paul Skene was engaged by WorkPac as a causal fly-in, fly-out dump-truck operator on mining operations between April 2010 and April 2014. The features of this

What does 'apply best practice' mean? Queensland Procurement Policy The Queensland Procurement Policy 2018 was quietly uploaded to the Queensland government’s website on 3 August 2018. The Policy provides for the application of ‘best practice principles’ for all major projects valued at $100 million and above, and declared projects, in accordance with guidance issued by the Department of Housing and Public Works and the Office of Industrial Relations: This will allow the government to assess the industrial relations arrangements of contractors on a subjective basis for government works. The public position is likely to avoid contractors engaging in non compliant behaviours in relation to emp

The Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld) commenced on 16th of April of this year. The Act establishes a mandatory licensing scheme for labour hire Employers, including providers based interstate or overseas who supply workers in Queensland. While many Labour Hire providers who currently operate in Queensland will have reviewed their arrangements and submitted their license applications, many employers remain uncertain as to what constitutes ‘labour hire’. In short, it will depend on the circumstances of the arrangements with clients. In particular, whether a full scope of services are being provided as opposed to the simple supply of labour to perform specific duties. In other words, where t