Parke Lawyers

Practice area

Employment Law for Employers.

Employment law guidance for Victorian employers, boards and HR teams — workplace policies, performance management, terminations, investigations, modern awards and the obligations that protect both employers and staff.

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All articles in employment law for employers.

Employment

Enforcing Post-Employment Restraints of Trade in Australia: An Employer's Guide

A practical Australian guide for employers on enforcing post-employment restraints of trade — legitimate interests, reasonableness, valid implementation, solicitation and dealing, state-law differences, garden leave, confidential information, lawful evidence preservation, interlocutory relief and the September 2026 draft non-compete reforms.

32 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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Employment

Wage Underpayments, Payroll Audits and Employer Liability in Australia

A practical Australian employer guide to preventing, detecting and remediating wage underpayments — payroll audit methodology, the hierarchy of employment entitlements, civil and accessorial liability, the criminal underpayment offence from 1 January 2025, the Voluntary Small Business Wage Compliance Code, Payday Super from 1 July 2026 and Victorian long-service-leave exposure.

48 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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Employment

Managing Ill and Injured Employees in Australia: An Employer's Guide

A practical Australian guide for employers on managing ill and injured employees — personal leave, extended absence, current medical evidence, the requirements of the role compared with the employer's preferred method, reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), consultation, privacy, Victorian return-to-work obligations, and procedurally fair termination on capacity grounds.

37 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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Employment

Psychosocial Hazards in Victorian Workplaces: An Employer's Guide

A practical Victorian employer guide to identifying, assessing and controlling psychosocial hazards under the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 and the WorkSafe compliance code — work design, consultation, hierarchy of controls, complaint response, reviews and overlapping employment, discrimination and workers-compensation duties.

27 min readReviewed by JULIAN McINTYRE, Associate
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Employment

Positive Duty to Prevent Workplace Sexual Harassment in Australia

A practical Australian employer guide to the positive duty under section 47C of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) — reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment, sex discrimination, sex-based harassment, hostile workplace environments on the ground of sex and related victimisation, with the AHRC's four Guiding Principles, seven Standards, Fair Work overlap and Victorian equal-opportunity and OHS overlay.

39 min readReviewed by JULIAN McINTYRE, Associate
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Employment

Redundancy in Australia: Genuine Redundancy, Consultation and Employer Risk

A practical Australian guide for employers on redundancy — what makes a redundancy 'genuine' under section 389, consultation obligations under modern awards and enterprise agreements, redeployment, selection criteria, redundancy pay and notice, sham redundancy and the interaction with unfair dismissal and general protections claims.

23 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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Employment

Employee or Contractor? The Risks of Getting It Wrong

An Australian guide for employers on the employee versus contractor distinction — the Fair Work Act whole-of-relationship test from 26 August 2024, where the contract-focused High Court approach still matters, and the separate superannuation (including Payday Super from 1 July 2026), PAYG, payroll tax, WorkCover and sham contracting consequences of getting classification wrong.

43 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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Employment

Can an Employer Terminate Employment for Serious Misconduct?

A practical Australian guide for employers, directors and HR teams on serious misconduct and summary dismissal — regulation 1.07, notice and payment in lieu, valid reason and the section 387 assessment, the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, evidence, suspension, final pay and unfair dismissal and general protections risk.

37 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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Employment

Procedural Fairness in Workplace Investigations

What fairness requires at each stage of a workplace investigation and disciplinary decision — particularising allegations, disclosing adverse material, a genuine opportunity to respond, impartiality, the standard of proof, and separating findings from sanction.

19 min readReviewed by JIM PARKE, Lawyer & Chartered Accountant
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