The Courts, and the news media, take discrimination and bullying at the workplace seriously. Whilst you can’t control what your employees do and say, you can take steps to embed the right attitude into your business’ culture and prevent issues from arising.

The Madgwicks Workplace Relations team assists you to navigate the anti-discrimination and equal opportunity employment laws including investigating matters of unlawful discrimination, fair flexible work practices, bullying and harassment incidents and workplace diversity management.

An organisations' managers, while having the best intentions, can inadvertently break an anti-discrimination or equal opportunity law. Experience has told us that often when people are promoted internally from a technical area of specialisation or skills, they are rarely given training in their new responsibilities and expectations. The actions they take as a manager might sometimes seem like common sense but are in fact unlawful.

We help employer groups, executives and HR professionals implement policies and processes so that they are followed. We visit your premises and invest time to learn the dynamics of your business and we'll then clearly explain the legal and commercial reasons behind proposed policies and process steps so you know what we are recommending and why.

When things don’t go as planned, our team has significant experience working with employers to defend complaints and if required, represent you in conciliation, mediation and Tribunal and Court proceedings.

Services

  • Investigation and representation in unlawful discrimination, bullying and harassment disputes
  • Development of workplace employment, health and safety policies and process, including flexible work practices and workplace diversity policy

Our Experts

Luisa Gonzaga

Partner
Luisa is an occupational health and safety specialist, providing strategic, pragmatic legal advice on all aspects of Work Health and Safety (WHS) matters.

Tim Greenall

Special Counsel
Commercially astute with over 30 years of experience, Tim provides pragmatic employment advice to his clients.

Thought Leadership & Past Experiences

Court awards damages for building works not completed in a reasonable time

Renovations dragging on? A recent decision determined there was an implied term that building works be completed within a reasonable period of time.
20 March, 2019

Employer fined for making returning mother redundant

It’s an all too familiar scenario. A valued employee takes her statutory entitlement to maternity leave and applies for a flexible work arrangement such as part-time work upon returning to work. However, whilst the employee has been away on parental...
25 August, 2016