Interesting Court Cases

Can you move your business and force an employee to travel further?  The Courts have ruled that in a situation where the employee does not want to travel, an extra 200 Km per week is too far.  So if you move more than 20 Km you may have to give staff the opportunity to take redundancy.

Just how much may the Courts fine if we just have a minor procedural flaw in a termination?  The Courts have recently awarded just $2,000 where this was the case and clearly the person would have lost their job anyway (in this case for medical reasons).  However, a business has picked up $26,000 in costs for not following correct procedure in investigating a harassment claim!

Can you deduct from a final pay where the employee has not given any notice?  The courts have been very clear that, even if your contract says you can, this will be unenforceable because it is a penalty clause.  Recent law changes have made this even clearer - no deductions from pay unless the specifics have been agreed to by the employee.  So in this case you would need to have specified what costs you would incur as a result in the agreement.

I can't stress enough - if you have any questions in these sorts of areas - take advice before you make any decisions or say things to staff.

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