Employment Law Awareness for Managers and Supervisors

Managers are at the frontline of interactions with staff. Decisions they make have the potential to create legal risks for your organisation down the track.

It is important that managers and supervisors understand the implications of taking or failing to take certain actions.

Workplace HR Solutions together with HR Legal, has developed a “face to face” learning and development program for your organisation’s Managers and Supervisors. Training is delivered over four modules and includes the key areas of employment law that leads to the greatest number of claims and litigation.

The purpose of the training is not to make your managers experts, rather to raise their knowledge and awareness of how different aspects of employment law can interact and the important role that they play in managing these areas.

We also offer a tailored abridged version of this Workshop designed especially for your Executive Management Team which highlights the legal risks to your business.

Module A – Performance Management & Unfair Dismissal

Ensuring your managers understand performance management policies and processes is crucial to avoiding successful unfair dismissal claims and WorkCover stress claims.

This 2 hour module provides an overview of:

  • Adopting performance management processes while managing legal risk
  • The benefits of acting during probationary periods
  • What disciplinary action is and how to document it
  • Conducting internal investigations
  • Grounds for termination – what serious misconduct is
  • Understanding unfair dismissal

Module B – Adverse Action, Discrimination & Harassment

The Fair Work act introduced a regime of “general protection” for employees. With the rise in claims from alleged bullying and discrimination and an employer’s obligations to provide “flexibility” for staff with carer responsibilities, it is easy to see why there are pitfalls for employers.

This 2 hour module provides an overview of:

  • General Protections
  • Adverse Action
  • Workplace Rights and the bullying jurisdiction
  • What is meant by discrimination, harassment and bullying
  • Obligations regarding provision of workplace flexibility for parents and carers

Module C – Workplace Safety & Critical Incident Management

Ensuring your managers understand the fundamentals of workplace health & safety, managing high risk areas, obligations about consultation and critical incident management. The objective is to prevent incidents arising and to equip your managers with skills to deal with incidents in a practical manner if they do occur.

This 2 hour module provides an overview of:

  • Obligations under the OHS Act
  • What is meant by “reasonably practicable”
  • Hazard identification, risk assessment and effective risk controls
  • Obligations about consultation
  • Critical incident management and incident notification

Module D – Injury Management and Return to Work

Managing employees with injuries whether they are work related or not creates apprehension for managers. This often leads to “non-management” of these people which affects the culture of your organisation and could lead to further injury.

This module gives managers a general understanding of obligations around injury management and returning injured workers back to work.

The 2 hour module provides an overview of:

  • The WorkCover scheme including entitlement to compensation
  • Managing injuries and return to work
  • Dealing with non-work related injuries and illnesses
  • Injury management versus performance management – setting expectations
  • Reasonable management action and the effect on entitlement to compensation