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Employment Law and Service Contracts
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Employment law changes from 1 July 2019 - take note !
Post by Damian Quail | Posted 5 years ago on Friday, June 28th, 2019
Employers should take note of changes to the employment landscape that take effect on 1 July 2019.
Increase in the National Minimum Wage and modern award rates
As discussed in a separate Williams + Hughes Insight, from 1 July 2019 the:
- national minimum wage will increase to $740.80 per week or $19.49 per hour (an increase of $21.60 per week or $0.56 per hour); and
- minimum full time wage rates set out in modern awards will increase by 3%. Allowances will increase in accordance with the provisions of the relevant modern award.
Changes to the Maximum Superannuation Contributions Base
The Maximum Superannuation Contributions Base is set by the Federal Government each year. It is used to determine the maximum limit on any individual employee’s earnings base for each quarter for superannuation guarantee payment purposes. An employer does not have to pay the superannuation guarantee for the portion of earnings above this limit.
From 1 July 2019 the Maximum Superannuation Contributions Base increases to $55,270 per quarter, up from $54,030. So, the maximum superannuation guarantee payments that an employer is liable to pay from 1 July 2019 per employee is 9.5% of $55,270, or $5,250.65 per quarter. Calculations should always be made on a quarterly, not annual, basis.
Changes to the High Income Threshold
From 1 July 2019 the high income threshold will increase to $148,700 per annum (from $145,400 per annum). This is important because the high income threshold sets the limit on an employee’s ablity to bring unfair dismissal proceedings. If an employee’s annual rate of earnings is more than the high income threshold, the employee is not able to bring an unfair dismissal claim unless they are covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement.
The increase to the high income threshold also means that the maximum payable compensation for unfair dismissal increases to $74,350, which is 50% of the new high income threshold.
The increase to the high income threshold also sets the minimum guaranteed earnings hurdle for an employee to be a “high income employee” for the purposes of modern award coverage. If a high income guarantee is entered into, the employee is not subject to the application of any modern award.
When calculating earnings for the purpose of the high income threshold, the following items are included:
- wages and salary
- any amounts applied or dealt with on the employee’s behalf (for example salary, sacrifice amounts)
- the agreed monetary value of any non-cash benefit (for example, use of a company car, laptop or mobile phone).
The following are not included as part of an employee’s earnings:
- payments that cannot be determined in advance (for example bonuses, commissions, incentive‑based payments and overtime, unless the overtime is guaranteed)
- reimbursements for business expenses
- superannuation guarantee contributions.
New whistleblower laws
Under the new whistleblower regime, public companies, proprietary companies that are trustees of a superannuation entity and large proprietary companies must have a compliant whistleblower policy and must provide it to their employees.
As discussed in a separate Williams + Hughes Insight, from 1 July 2019 new asset, revenue and number of employees thresholds apply when determing whether a company is a large proprietary company.
The new whistleblower regime takes effect from 1 July 2019. Although the new regime applies to disclosures made on or after 1 July 2019, the disclosures may relate to conduct that occurred before that date.
The requirement to have a whistleblower policy in place commences on 1 January 2020, although a small proprietary company that becomes a large proprietary company after 1 January 2020 will have an additional six months to establish a whistleblower policy.
Given that companies need to comply with the new laws from 1 July 2019 and must have compliant policies in place by the dates referred to above, companies must take steps to prepare compliant whistleblower policies. Managers and staff must also be trained to properly handle disclosures that are protected under the new whistleblower laws - the new laws require this. The whistleblower policies must also be made available to officers and employees of the company.
Williams + Hughes can assist you in several ways:
- drafting or reviewing policies that comply with the new legislation;
- providing training for managers to understand the new whistleblower regime and how to properly handle whisteblowing disclosures; and
- preparing "cheat sheets", templates and protocols for managers to use when a whistleblowing disclosure is made.
For further information on how these changes may impact on your business please contact Damian Quail or Matthew Lenhoff on +61 8 9481 2040 or damian.quail@whlaw.com.au or matthew.lenhoff@whlaw.com.au.
This article is general information only, at the date it is posted. It is not, and should not be relied upon as, legal advice. This article might not be updated over time and therefore may not reflect changes to the law. Please feel free to contact us for legal advice that is specific to your situation.
Employment Law and Service Contracts
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We advise employers, employees and contractors on all aspects of employment law. Our experience means we deliver legal advice that is commercially astute and pragmatic.
Our expertise includes:
- Advising in relation to compliance with Australian employment related laws, including entitlements.
- Preparation, negotiation and review of:
- Employment agreements
- Executive service agreements
- Service contracts
- Consulting agreements
- Subcontracting agreements
- Executive incentive schemes, including tax effective loan funded share plans
- Employee incentive schemes, including employee share schemes and plans
- Labour hire agreements
- Reviewing employment related restraints e.g. no-poach, non-compete clauses, etc.
- Advising in relation to minimum terms and conditions of employment.
- Advising in relation to employment related confidentiality obligations.
We also advise in relation to employment related and industrial disputes. For more details click here.
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Our notable and relevant experience includes:
- Acting for numerous companies to prepare employment contracts for senior executives and line employees
- Acted for numerous companies to prepare or review consulting and subcontractor agreements
- Advised numerous clients in relation to redundancy and termination of employment
- Advised overseas companies in relation to compliance with Australian employment laws
- Prepared tax effective loan funded share plans for executive team of ASX listed technology company
- Prepared numerous profit share and incentive agreements for senior managers
- Prepared labour hire agreements for recruitment companies
- Due diligence review of employment contracts for both bidders and targets in M&A transactions
Minimum wage increase to apply in Australia from 1 July 2019
Post by Williams & Hughes | Posted 5 years ago on Wednesday, June 19th, 2019
All employers should be aware of the Fair Work Commission's (FWC's) decision regarding the 2018/2019 annual wage review.
The FWC announced a 3% increase from the first full day period on or after 1 July 2019 to the:
- national minimum wage, which will increase to $740.80 per week or $19.49 per hour (an increase of $21.60 per week or $0.56 per hour); and
- minimum full time wage rates set out in modern awards. Allowances will increase in accordance with the provisions of the relevant modern award.
The FWC’s decision is lower than last year’s 3.5% increase to the national minimum wage (and lower than the 3.3% increase from the previous year). The FWC stated that the prevailing economic conditions justified a lower increase this year.
In light of the FWC’s decision, it is important that employers review their rates of pay before 1 July 2019 to ensure employees are appropriately paid in accordance with the new wage rates. There can be significant penalties against employers, and potentially directors, who fail to meet their minimum wage obligations.
For further information on how these changes may impact on your business please contact us on +61 8 9481 2040.
This article is general information only, at the date it is posted. It is not, and should not be relied upon as, legal advice. This article might not be updated over time and therefore may not reflect changes to the law. Please feel free to contact us for legal advice that is specific to your situation.
Amy Knight
PrincipalLLB (Dist), BCom
EXPERTISE
EXPERIENCE
Amy practices in general commercial and corporate law with a focus on property, business and share acquisitions and disposals.
Amy has a particular interest in property law and is routinely involved in all aspects of property transactions including legal due diligence, acquisitions and disposals, financing, leases, subdivisions, strata titles, transfer duty advice and conveyancing.
On the corporate side, Amy has acted on buy, sell and financier sides of company and business acquisitions and disposals.
Amy is based in our West Perth Office.
Amy’s recent experience includes:
- Due diligence, contract negotiation and settlement of the acquisition of multi-lot properties exceeding $30m;
- Acquisition and funding (via convertible notes and security trust) of farming properties exceeding $25m;
- Negotiation and settlement of the disposal of securities to a multinational group exceeding $20m;
- Subdivision and sale of semi-rural development site exceeding 100 lots;
- Acquisition and disposal of a number of vineyards in the Margaret River region.
Commercial Law & Contracts
Williams + Hughes advise public and private companies and individuals across a wide spectrum of industries. Our range of commercial litigation expertise and experience, coupled with ready access to senior legal personnel and our responsiveness, makes us top choice commercial litigation lawyers in Western Australia.
We recognise that clients often choose their legal advisors based on their knowledge and understanding of the client’s industry. Our lawyers work hard to understand the commercial and technical drivers underpinning our clients’ industries, as this enables us to quickly and efficiently advise on complex and technical matters affecting their businesses.
Get in touch with our top tier commercial litigation lawyers in Perth or Geraldon to see how we can assist you.
What we do
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Damian Quail
PrincipalLLB, B.Com (Acc & Fin) (Hons) MAICD
EXPERTISE
EXPERIENCE
Damian is a Director and Principal of Williams + Hughes. He has practiced as a lawyer for over 28 years in the commercial, resources, agribusiness, software and technology fields. He has managed many large deals, including major investments, farm-ins and JV’s, asset and share sale deals, capital raising transactions and construction matters.
Damian acts for a wide range of clients, including ASX and TSX listed companies, large private family groups and small to medium enterprises. Damian has special expertise in M&A transactions.
Damian adopts a pragmatic approach with a strong focus on ensuring his advice adds value and allows clients to get deals done.
Damian has significant business experience outside of law. This experience helps ensure he does not waste time on legal points that are not commercially important. His past and current roles include:
- Director and Executive Producer at Perpetual Entertainment West and Director at Quail Entertainment, television production companies
- Board member of the Churchlands Senior High School Foundation
- Director of eight unlisted gold exploration companies
- President of The West Australian Mining Club 2019/20; Secretary 2017-2019; Committee Member 2015-2020
- co-founder of four start-ups in space launch, biotech and mobile app sectors
- founding Trustee of the Rotary Club of Crawley Charitable Foundation
- Analyst and Management Consultant at boutique investment bank (3 years)
- Senior Associate at Perth's largest law firm (3.5 years)
Damian is a current member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Energy and Resources Law and the Law Society of Western Australia.
Damian is based in our West Perth office. He is a regular legal CPD seminar presenter for the Law Society of Western Australia and Legalwise, where he has presented extensively on M&A topics. He is married with three children and enjoys making TV shows, travelling and playing indoor cricket.
Some of the significant matters Damian has advised on include:
Mining, resources and mining services
- Prepared numerous M&A agreements, farm-in agreements, joint venture agreements, land access and compensation agreements for listed and non-listed exploration companies.
- Prepared numerous subcontractor, procurement and hire agreements for mining services companies supplying to major resources construction projects
- Legal adviser to ASX-listed Image Resources for over 13 years in relation to numerous aspects of its Boonanarring and Atlas Mineral Sands Projects, including:
- negotiating and preparing numerous land access, compensation, option and acquisition agreements relating to mining on private land and on Crown leases.
- general day to day legal advice including FIRB approvals, exploration and mining agreements, petroleum pipeline easements and easements over adjoining properties.
- Australian legal adviser to TSX-V listed Novo Resources Corp. including:
- establishing Australian subsidiaries and serving as a Director 2010-2023.
- negotiating and preparing numerous farm-in, joint venture, sale and purchase and royalty agreements, including due diligence and transaction agreements with Creasy Group, Millennium Minerals, Artemis Resources, Comet Well vendors, Pioneer Resources, Calidus Resources, Northwest Resources, Nimble Resources, Talga Resources, Mesa Minerals and others.
- general legal and contracting work including heritage agreements, split minerals rights agreements, refining agreements, toll treatment, leases, access agreements, DMIRS compliance work, advising in relation to tenements issues, etc.
- legal compliance and advice including company secretarial work, FIRB applications, DMIRS compliance, employment issues, complex stamp/transfer duty matters and general day to day legal advice.
- Legal adviser to ASX listed Middle Island Resources for over 10 years on numerous matters, including:
- purchase of Sandstone Gold Project. Conducted legal due diligence and negotiated Asset Sale Agreement and related documents.
- sale of Sandstone Gold Project to Aurumin Limited. Negotiated Sale Agreement and related documents.
- bidding for Samira Hill gold mine in Niger. Extensive assistance with due diligence, advice in relation to Mining Code of Niger and negotiating sale agreement and related documents.
- proposed purchase of a Moroccan copper project.
- sale of project interests in Burkina Faso, Niger, Liberia and Western Australia, including negotiating farm-in and royalty agreements.
- Legal adviser to Coil Group and JT Metallurgical Services, including toll processing, mill operation and various service contracts.
- Legal adviser to Resource Mining, including in relation to purchase of Goongarrie Gold Project, contract mining agreement and contract variation iss
- Legal adviser to Titan Plant Hire and Territory Plant Hire, including in relation to numerous infrastructure and resources projects in Western Australia and Northern Territory.
- Acted for ASX-listed Apex Minerals in successfully restructuring of $87 million debt facility, including negotiations with security trustees and banks in New York and reset of debt facility, warrant deeds, security trust deeds, etc.
- Prepared oil and gas services agreements for Plexal for gas pipeline projects in Australia, Bangladesh and Thailand.
- Advised ASX-listed Cougar Metals in relation to Brazilian lithium project.
- Acted for Lime Industries Group in relation to limestone and sand mining.
- Advised ASX-listed Magnetic Resources in relation to acquisition of gold projects.
- Advised ASX-listed Mindax in relation to acquisition of gold projects, including farm-in agreements.
- Acted for ASX-listed Emu Nickel in relation to various minerals projects.
- Advised Australian investment company to set up Limited and General Partnerships in the Cayman Islands for investment in global resources opportunities.
Mergers & Aquisitions
- See above for mining and resources related M&A work.
- Acted for owners of Western Australia's largest hospitality supplies company, Hisco, on sale of business to French owned Reward Group.
- Acted for MBL on purchase of Southcoast Food Services business.
- Acted for INX Software shareholders on sale of majority stake in INX to private equity buyer Tanarra Capital.
- Acted for Perth Medical Laboratories (Perth’s largest independent pathology business) shareholders on sale of company to Australian Clinical Laboratories (private equity owned).
- Acted for buyer of Titan Digital and Titan Brand businesses (120 staff across Australia and South Africa).
- Acted for Craig Mostyn Group in numerous acquisitions and divestments including:
- assisted with aspects of the acquisition of V&V Walsh
- acquisition of Jade Tiger, Australia’s largest abalone farm
- acquisition of Australian Seafoods (abalone and rock lobster) in Dover, Tasmania
- acquisition of Fertal rendering business
- divestment of Fataway business
- divestment of Tasmanian seafoods business
- Advised vendor of HPC Data Centres on sale of data centre to ASX-listed Amcom.
- Advised vendors of Orelogy mining software on sale of software business to Maptek.
- Advised vendors of Orelogy Consulting business to Perenti.
- Advised Conducive shareholders on sale of IT services business to ASX-listed Empired Limited.
- Advised Silicon Valley based software company on purchase of Australian software business, including IP due diligence.
- Advised Wild Geese International (oil and gas safety and induction training) to ASX-listed Site Group International.
- Advised sellers of Ecologia to ASX-listed RDG.
- Advised numerous buyers and sellers in private M&A transactions, including involving vendor finance, earn-outs and funds escrow arrangements, including acting as escrow agent.
Pipelines, Tanks and Terminals
- Acting for Coogee Chemicals for many years, including:
- acted for the Coogee Chemicals - Mitsubishi joint venture regarding construction and operation of $100m+ Port Bonython diesel fuel terminal, including FEED study, build, terminal services, terminal lease and shareholders agreements and related documents
- negotiating multi-decade pipeline leases and easements in Kwinana industrial estate.
- negotiating multi-decade chlorine and caustic supply agreements.
- negotiating land access agreements and easements for pipelines, tanks, railway sidings, elevated pipebridges, etc in in Kwinana industrial estate and Kalgoorlie.
- acted for Coogee Chemicals in relation to sale of interst in Port Bonython Fuels
- negotiating industrial leases and licences.
Construction
- Advised subcontractors supplying services and equipment to major resources projects including Inpex Icthys Darwin, Rio Tinto (various Pilbara), FMG Cloud Break, BHP Newman, and Main Roads WA projects (various in Western Australia)
- Acted for the Coogee Chemicals - Mitsubishi joint venture regarding construction Port Bonython diesel fuel terminal- see above.
- Prepared numerous construction contracts for Craig Mostyn Group, including construction contracts for:
- multiple abalone farm extensions in several locations across Australia, including at Australia's largest abalone farm
- multistage expansion of Western Australia’s largest pig abattoir, including new buildings and plant upgrades
- multistage construction of large commercial piggeries at Mogumber (six large buildings)
- multistage expansion of Western Australia’s largest meat and poultry waste rendering facility, including plant upgrades, new water treatment plant, new boilers and new rendering line
- refit of the Group’s head office in Fremantle
- Prepared construction contract documents for Fujitsu for multi site data centre upgrade program across Australia
Software and IT related
- See above for software and IT related M&A work.
- Advised large private company in relation to moving from in-house IT solution to Telstra hosted Cloud environment (production, disaster recovery, backup).
- Advised large industrial company in relation to Oracle software licensing audit and licensing compliance, including compliance with licensing terms and challenging licence fees demanded for virtual machines and multiple software instances.
- Advised IT vendor entering USA market - prepared manufacturing, distribution, branding and licensing agreements.
- Advised ASX-listed property company in relation Microsoft Dynamics enterprise agreements.
- Prepared suite of software licencing, maintenance and support agreements for spatial software developer (Australia and USA).
- Prepared numerous software license agreements, distribution agreements, reseller agreements, EUSLAs, support and maintenance and service level agreements (including SaaS and Cloud Agreements), consulting contracts, etc for numerous Australian software companies.
- Reviewed and advised numerous clients in relation to IT procurement contracts.
- Prepared numerous website and app T&C's
- Advised many software, medical and mobile app start-ups in relation to business structuring, shareholder agreements, terms and conditions, fundraising documents, commercialisation agreements, manufacturing, distribution, branding and licensing agreements.