Resources
Only two months until the Unfair Contract Terms regime will extend to small business
On 12 November 2016, the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Act 2015 (Cth) (Amendments) (‘the Act’), extends the existing unfair contract terms regime to include the new category of ‘small business contracts’. The extension of...
Family Trusts for Father’s Day
‘What would you like for Father’s Day daddy” my seven-year-old asked. ‘We are tired of getting you the same boring old gifts.’ ‘It is very kind of you to ask but honestly there isn’t anything that I can think of offhand’ I replied. ‘How about we set up a family trust...
Business risk assessments
Minimising Business Risk If we met at a conference and I began to start talking Cyclops with you (the subject not the language), I have little doubt that your first reaction would be to move away quickly, probably thinking ‘why on earth would someone be talking about...
Dismissal of an employee who refused to take a drug test found to be unfair
The Fair Work Commission has ruled that Dorevitch Pathology, a leading provider of workplace drug tests, unfairly sacked one of its employees earlier this year, when it dismissed her for refusing to take a drug test. The dismissal occurred after drug allegations were...
Seed Capital
‘Can we get sunflowers?’ asked my three-year-old daughter. 'Can we?' ‘I want to get tomato seeds’ demanded my seven-year-old who secretly wanted sunflowers but couldn’t bring herself to agree with her younger sister. ‘Easy guys’ I tried to explain. ‘We have our wires...
Employment rights in the Uber model canvas?
The question ‘what exactly are you?’ crossed my mind again last night. I had taken an Uber ride home from a business event and once more, the efficiency that my ride service provided was soon outweighed by my obsessive need to solve this dilemma. ‘Are you an employee...
Social media in the workplace
I can hear the cries of ‘hypocrisy’ as I type and post this to LinkedIn sat at my desk in my workplace during core working hours. 'Typical employer. Happy for me to use social media to market your business but critical when I want to organise a catch up with my mates...
Delivering excellent client service, Tom Cruise and lashings of popcorn
Client service excellence lies at the heart of the Ashbrooke Law philosophy. An integral part of this is demystifying legal processes and providing legal services on a level that clients can properly understand and appreciate. Working with a lawyer shouldn’t be...
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye! When that star performer quits…..
Although we all like to think that we are great employers to work for, that our workforce is a close-knit team and that our employees would be crazy to go elsewhere, the reality is that workers are now more transient than ever before, and it is likely that some of...
The Value of Shareholders Agreements
The room went silent. The temperature dropped and you could have cut the increased tension that now gripped my office with a plastic spoon. If there had been dogs nearby, one would have looked at me, shook its head and given a solitary howl. “So, what you are saying...