Listed services giant Ventia has been ordered to pay $25,000 compensation after failing to persuade the FWC it had reason to sack a senior employee it claimed divulged commercially sensitive information to its former national hospitality and catering manager over a lunchtime catch-up.
As the Albanese Government considers whether to restrict non-compete clauses, new research from the e61 Institute shows that workers in companies using them alongside non-disclosure agreements earn 4% less than those with employers that only rely on NDAs.
Legal Aid NSW is calling for the Government to implement a complete ban on restraint of trade clauses for all vulnerable workers, including independent contractors, casual, gig, and employee-like workers, and other workers should receive compensation for non-competes based on a proportion of their income.
A court has found a low-paid casual hairdresser's two-year restraint on poaching clients "void and unenforceable" because it is "significantly longer" than necessary to protect her former employer's legitimate business interests, taking into account the absence of compensation for the non-compete clause and the nature of client relationships.
A non-compete clause is business's "bluntest tool in the shed" and Australia should look to international limits on restraints of trade that enable workers to switch jobs more easily and give businesses other options to protect their interests, Assistant Competition Minister Andrew Leigh told the McKell Institute today.
The FWC has ordered a Gold Coast cabaret club to compensate two workers it sacked after intercepting private social media discussions about a colleague's pay, finding it treated them like they had broken into its equivalent of the Watergate complex to expose key secrets over WikiLeaks.
A court has refused to grant an interlocutory injunction restraining a lawyer from working in a large regional area while his former firm seeks to enforce a contractual two-year ban, instead accepting an undertaking after observing the legal practice did not have a strong case.
A prison officer who also works casually as a lawyer has lost his challenge to a Queensland Corrective Services ban on him representing colleagues in cases against it or in domestic violence, traffic offence and criminal matters.
In returning a worker to her job and restoring most of her lost pay, finding the policy the worker breached "might make sense to copyright lawyers and some IT specialists, but probably no one else" the FWC has cautioned that "employer policy documents and manuals must be accessible, understandable and reasonable in their terms".
The Albanese Government has asked the ACCC and Treasury for advice on the effects of non-compete clauses in employment contracts and any action warranted in response.
