The Inside Employment, IR and Safety podcast series

Episode 25: Clear and unambiguous enterprise agreements – A pipe dream, or a necessity?

Recorded 4 March 2025

Given the recent commencement of criminal wage thefts laws, increase in the maximum civil penalties that can be awarded for wage non-compliance, and focus of the Fair Work Ombudsman on prosecuting wage non-compliance, it is more important than ever to get wage compliance right. But there is a feature of our industrial relations system that can sometimes make achieving compliance a rather difficult exercise…. We are of course talking about long, complex and ambiguous enterprise agreements.

Many employers are saddled with enterprise agreements that are, at best, confusing, and at worst, internally inconsistent. They are a product of decades of enterprise bargaining – where words that were crafted 30 or so years ago have either been left as they were and considered too difficult to modernise, or been added to over time resulting in an unwieldly hodgepodge of obligations, entitlements, exceptions, and conditions. The cost and risk to business of managing compliance with these types of instruments is significant yet attempts to modernise terms during enterprise bargaining processes are often met with resistance.

In our latest episode of our market-leading industrial relations podcast Inside IR, Partner Rohan Doyle and Senior Associate Mitchell Brennan grapple with this problem and explore potential solutions. Rohan and Mitchell:

• provide a refresher on the potential consequences of long, complex, and ambiguous enterprise agreements, including in light of recent IR reform;
• reflect on the reasons as to why some enterprise agreements have become a source of a significant non-compliance risk, and compliance cost, for some employers; and
• explore various paths that employers can take – both inside and outside of bargaining – to achieve clearer terms and conditions that are easier and more cost effective to comply with.

Episode 24: End of Year IR Wrap

Recorded 5 December 2024

In this not-to-be-missed final episode of InsideIR for 2024, your favourite IR team has done all the hard work for you, and pulled together a succinct summary of:

• the top 5 issues that shaped industrial relations in 2024, and
• our predictions on the top 5 IR issues that you will need to get ahead of for 2025.

In this bumper end-of-year edition, Rohan Doyle is accompanied by no less than 9 of his HSF IR colleagues from across the country.

Rohan Doyle (Partner), Victoria Fijalski (Senior Associate), Mathew Reiman (Senior Associate), Rachel Dawson (Partner) and Anna Creegan (Partner) review and reflect on 2024.

Meanwhile, Wendy Fauvel (Partner), Kara Reynolds (Executive Counsel), Drew Pearson (Partner), Jessica Light (Senior Associate) and Sophie Beaman (Executive Counsel) look into their crystal ball, and outline the five IR issues to keep an eye on in 2025.

Episode 23: AI in the workplace - bargaining and more

Recorded 13 November 2024

In this episode of Inside IR, Natalie Gaspar and Adam Ray discuss the impact of generative AI on industrial relations and bargaining. They explore how AI technologies, particularly generative AI, are transforming workplaces by performing tasks that typically require human input, such as content creation and decision-making. The episode delves into the responses from Australian unions, including the ACTU's formal policy on AI, which emphasises the need for genuine consultation, transparency, and clearly defined responsibilities and liability. They also discuss the potential for AI to enhance job efficiency and the importance of training employees to use these technologies effectively. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of industrial relations in the face of rapid technological advancements, the implications for job security and workplace management, and how AI-related claims might be approached in bargaining.

Episode 22: The right to disconnect

Recorded 23 August 2024

In this episode of Inside IR, Steve Bell and Natalie Gaspar explore the new "right to disconnect" in Australia, which allows employees to refuse to monitor or respond to work-related communications outside of their ordinary hours, unless it is unreasonable to do so. Steve and Nat explore the implications of these new laws, including the role of the Fair Work Commission, how the laws intersect with broader obligations to manage psychosocial risk, the increasing awareness among workers of their rights to reasonable working hours, and the role of employers in managing these expectations.
 

Episode 21: Navigating intractable enterprise bargaining – key learnings so far

Recorded 20 August 2024

In this not-to-be-missed episode of Inside IR, Partner Nick Ogilvie and Senior Associate Victoria Fijalski join Rohan Doyle to explore the learnings that can be taken from employers’ early experiences with the new intractable bargaining regime. Join Nick, Vic and Rohan as they:

• recap on what the intractable bargaining regime is, and provide a refresher on the preconditions that need to be met for the Fair Work Commission to make an intractable bargaining declaration;
• review the case law within the intractable bargaining jurisdiction to date, and identify the 5 key traps for employers – mistakes that, if made, are going to lead to poor bargaining outcomes – and tips for how to avoid them; and
• answer the burning question – is there any upside in the intractable bargaining regime for employers?

Episode 20: The changing landscape of employee mobility

Recorded 8 August 2024

In this episode of Inside IR, Drew Pearson and Shivchand Jhinku are joined by competition partner Patrick Gay to discuss the Australian Government Competition Task Force's review into the use of non-compete and non-solicit provisions in employment contracts. They explore the potential impacts of proposed reforms on employee mobility and the dynamics of the Australian job market, and also delve into the global trends in this area, particularly in the US and UK. The conversation further touches on the role of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the potential changes in its jurisdiction over employment-related matters.

Episode 1: The year ahead

Recorded 17 February 2025

On the inaugural episode of the Inside Employment podcast series, hosts Anthony Wood, Partner, and Lucy Boyd, Executive Counsel, welcomed Katie Bull, Senior Associate, for a discussion on their top 5 predictions for major issues and developments which are likely to affect Australian employers in 2025, including:

1. The continued prominence of underpayment and compliance issues;
2. A focus on workplace psychosocial health, including a rise in investigations and prosecutions;
3. Diversity and Inclusion (or, “DEI”) backlash in Australia;
4. Increased workplace investigations, whistleblower activity and individual claims; and
5. The impact of Labor’s first term “Secure Jobs, Better Pay” and “Closing Loopholes” reforms, and the imminent Federal Election and potential further reform.