Employment

Meeting your compliance obligations

We can help you understand if you are meeting the employment obligations for the locations where you operate. Responsibilities that need to be reviewed include pay obligations, work conditions, leave arrangements, managing requests for flexible working arrangements, and providing a safe place to work and adequate workplace facilities.

Customised pragmatic advice

The regulatory regime is complex across jurisdictions, including discrimination, privacy and safety laws. We help you to manage and comply with these issues through practical, tailored advice, effective policies, processes and training. We work in the way that best suits you such as providing customised pragmatic advice, conducting gap analyses, developing systems and offering workplace training solutions.

A labour relations strategy

To achieve your corporate objectives in a flexible, productive and cost-effective way, you need a labour relations strategy that identifies and mitigates the risks and obstacles.

How we can help

We have been advising major corporates on labour relations strategy for over 100 years about:

• planning and implementing collective bargaining strategies which align workforces with commercial objectives
• implementing effective strategies to anticipate, avoid, minimise and overcome industrial action and disputes
• negotiating, drafting and interpreting collective agreements and conducting related litigation resolving labour and union disputes.

Be prepared for disputes

Regardless of whether you have the best workplace and good practices, policies and procedures in place, disputes will still arise. When a dispute occurs, you need to be able to effectively present and protect your rights in collective and individual claims and in cases where there are disputes about bargaining.

Helping you resolve disputes

Through innovative dispute resolution strategies and effective case management, we aim to identify and execute the most advantageous solutions through litigation or alternative dispute resolution methods such as mediation. Our focus is on getting to know your business and the issues you face so that we can provide you with our expertise and resources in the most efficient and effective way. Our experience includes managing complaints; conducting workplace investigations; representing clients in courts and tribunals in relation to claims such as breach of contract, unfair dismissal, adverse action and workplace bullying and harassment; and advising on internal employee appeals and disputes regarding interpretation of agreements.

Managing risks to health and safety

Workplace health and safety is critical to the success and morale of everyone in the workplace, including workers, customers, visitors and suppliers. It is essential to undertake regular gap analyses, due diligence and compliance audits to review the workplace and put in place suitable policies and compliance programmes, including tailored in-house training.

Extensive experience managing safety incidents

Our team has extensive experience managing major safety incidents and fatalities and advising Boards about their personal liability in this area. Our team is always on call to manage safety incidents; from dealing with the media and regulators to managing investigations and employee wellbeing. We're experienced in developing effective defence strategies in the event of safety prosecutions or claims.

Navigating complex regulations across different countries

Multinational companies are often confronted with a variety of challenging HR issues and need to navigate the legal and regulatory issues in various jurisdictions regarding executive remuneration and mobility.

Global network

Our team has extensive experience dealing with executive recruitment and departures, and the employment aspects of outsourcing, offshoring and corporate transactions. We also have experience advising on strategic through to day-to-day issues, including senior board appointments and terminations and boardroom succession planning, where we work with our Strategic Governance and Advisory team.

Tough decisions

A tough trading environment or the need to focus on cost-effectiveness can lead you to review the size and structure of your workforce. Achieving strategic change objectives while maintaining a motivated workforce can be challenging.

Addressing restructuring challenges

We have extensive experience advising throughout major corporate transactions and restructuring by addressing employment issues that can impact the success of a deal or derail it altogether, including due diligence on existing terms and conditions, resourcing options and implications of business restructuring, legal requirements when making roles redundant, liability for accrued contractual and legislative entitlements, and motivation of remaining employees.

Upskilling your people

Businesses are increasingly focused on upskilling their people to recognise and respond to potential legal issues. An essential part of an effective compliance and risk management program is effective training.

Tailored training

Our workplace training team, comprising practising lawyers, design and deliver client-tailored training to enable your managers and staff to effectively deal with workplace issues. Our client tailored Workplace Training helps you to:

• Generate an understanding of legal issues among your staff to help with early identification of issues
• Motivate and retain staff by investing in their personal development
• Reduce business risk
• Comply with statutory and regulatory requirements

Our Workplace Training programmes include:

• Appropriate workplace behaviours
• Effective workplace investigations
• Managing a major safety incident
• Managing adverse action claims
• Managing ill and injured workers
• Managing whistleblower disclosures
• Managing workplace bullying
• Officer WHS liability and due diligence
• Performance management
• Recruiting and engaging staff

If you would like further information about any of our training courses, please email Julie Mills or your current Ashurst adviser.

Preventing discrimination, harassment and bullying in your workplace

The implementation of culturally sensitive programmes, policies and training that not only comply with the relevant laws and regulations, but also fit your workplace culture and commercial objectives are crucial.

Increasingly complex and multi-jurisdictional issues

Our team advise on the increasingly complex and multi-jurisdictional issues around diversity, anti-discrimination, bullying and harassment. We also advise on and defend the application of these laws in the provision of goods, services and facilities. Some claims come with significant reputational risk and we have experience in managing the media when advising on highly confidential and sensitive issues. We represent employers and service providers in workplace investigations, mediations and conciliations as well as litigated proceedings to resolve complaints of unequal pay, and all grounds of discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment brought by employees, contractors, clients and the public.