{"id":2460,"date":"2020-05-26T04:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T04:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horner-au.ap.applyflow.com\/uncategorized\/federal-court-decision-workpac-v-rossato\/"},"modified":"2024-11-12T02:20:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T02:20:23","slug":"federal-court-decision-workpac-v-rossato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/federal-court-decision-workpac-v-rossato\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Decision of WorkPac v Rossato Affirms Skene Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 20 May 2020, the Full\u00a0Federal<\/span>\u00a0Court<\/span>\u00a0handed down the long-awaited\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0WorkPac<\/span>\u00a0Pty Ltd\u00a0v<\/span>\u00a0Rossato<\/span>, a case which sought to resolve the casual employee \u2018double dipping\u2019\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0Skene<\/span>\u00a0v<\/span>\u00a0WorkPac<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In a unanimous\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0the three judges, the full\u00a0court<\/span>\u00a0found that Mr\u00a0Rossato<\/span>\u00a0was \u2018other than a casual\u2019 under the Fair Work Act and, therefore, entitled to annual leave, personal leave, compassionate leave and public holiday payments for the three and a half years\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0continuous employment. In effect, this\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0affirmed the\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0Skene<\/span>\u00a0v<\/span>\u00a0WorkPac<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a02018.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0court<\/span>\u00a0also rejected all arguments that\u00a0WorkPac<\/span>\u00a0could \u2018set\u00a0of<\/span>f\u2019 the accrued entitlement on the basis that Mr\u00a0Rossato<\/span>\u00a0had already been paid the leave\u00a0v<\/span>ia a casual loading.<\/p>\n

Whilst concerning, especially at this time, it was heartening to have it affirmed that \u2018continuity\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0service is not a defining characteristic\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0non-casual employment\u2019, which means that continuous employment,\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0itself, for an extended period\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0time does not mean a casual employee is entitled to leave under the NES.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it is important that there were a number\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0unique facts in this\u00a0decision<\/span>, including the construction\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0the employment contracts. In addition the underpinning award to the enterprise agreement was an award that did not provide for casual employment. That said, it is still a concerning\u00a0decision<\/span>.<\/p>\n

A copy\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0is available\u00a0here<\/a><\/p>\n

Our peak body, the RCSA, have been lobbying the government hard for many months to amend the Fair Work Act and the government have said they wanted to wait for this\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0before acting. Now the government will be forced to act.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, promised to consider legislation following the\u00a0decision<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the potential for this\u00a0decision<\/span>\u00a0to further weaken the economy at a time when so many Australians have lost their jobs, it may also be necessary to consider legislative options,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n

He noted the possibility\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0an appeal, and said the government would consider intervening in the case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Article Source: RCSA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 20 May 2020, the Full\u00a0Federal\u00a0Court\u00a0handed down the long-awaited\u00a0decision\u00a0in\u00a0WorkPac\u00a0Pty Ltd\u00a0v\u00a0Rossato, a case which sought to resolve the casual employee \u2018double dipping\u2019\u00a0decision\u00a0of\u00a0Skene\u00a0v\u00a0WorkPac. In a unanimous\u00a0decision\u00a0of\u00a0the three judges, the full\u00a0court\u00a0found that Mr\u00a0Rossato\u00a0was \u2018other than a casual\u2019 under the Fair Work Act and, therefore, entitled to annual leave, personal leave, compassionate leave and public holiday payments for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[124,122,123,125],"class_list":["post-2460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clients","tag-casual-employee","tag-casual-employment","tag-fair-work-commission","tag-human-resources"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horner.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}