In late 2023, a protracted industrial relations dispute between DP World Australia and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) crystallised around the negotiation of a replacement enterprise agreement covering stevedoring staff at Australia’s four principal container terminals - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle. The legal foundation of the dispute was the enterprise bargaining framework in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which enables employees to take protected industri

Deliveroo Australia Pty Ltd v Diego Franco is a defining case at the intersection of Australia’s expanding gig economy and the legal boundaries of traditional employment protections. At its core was a straightforward yet legally profound question: under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), was a delivery rider engaged via a digital platform an employee with access to statutory unfair dismissal remedies, or an independent contractor operating a commercial service provider? The answer

At its core, Helensburgh Coal Pty Ltd v Bartley & Ors is not a dispute about whether an employer may restructure its workforce. That power is well established under Australian employment law. Instead, the case turns on a narrower but more consequential legal question: when employees are dismissed as redundant, how far must an employer go to consider alternative workforce arrangements before the dismissal can lawfully be described as a “genuine redundancy”? The High Court’s an