The Professional Development Specialists Legal CPD for Lawyers, CPD for Accountants & Business Executives

Subject: Legal CPD | Employment Law CPD
Author: Gemma Sharp, Special Counsel, Cooper Grace Ward

Australians work long hours. In 2023, Australian employees worked an average of 280 hours of unpaid overtime. This includes the time employees spent staying late, working through their breaks, working weekends and taking calls and emails outside of their ordinary hours.

With remote working arrangements and four-day work weeks becoming increasingly common, many employees are looking for working arrangements that maximise their time out of the office and minimise unpaid hours.

Workplace laws are beginning to address the idea of the work/life balance, seeking ways to limit the amount of unpaid work performed by Australians.

With this in mind, a ‘right to disconnect’ has been inserted into the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FWA) which will take effect this year. This right will allow employees to reasonably refuse to monitor, read or respond to out of hours contact (right to disconnect).

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Our Free Reads are sourced from technical papers presented by our faculty at recent  Webinars  or Conferences.

Subject: Employment Law CPD 
Author: Geoff Gartly CA, Director, Gartly Advisory

“Prepare for the worst…”
The origins of this phrase aren’t easily identified, aside from it potentially being attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, a former British PM in the 1860s. Nonetheless, it is certainly a phrase worth remembering when drafting employment agreements. This is because there are generally two occasions when the parties will look at the contract in an employment relationship; first, when they sign it, and second, when either party is contemplating or has already begun the process of terminating the employment. 

This is why it is so important to get the drafting right from day one, with particular attention given to the termination related clauses, so as to prepare for the end of the relationship. In preparing for the inevitable end of the relationship, it is first important to understand what objectives should be considered, as this will inform what types of clauses will be required.

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Our Free Reads are sourced from technical papers presented by our faculty at recent  Webinars  or Conferences.

Subject: Legal CPD | Legal Compulsory CPD
Author: Fraser Bax, Partner, HopgoodGanim Lawyers

Cryptocurrency is a burgeoning asset class in Australia that is disrupting societal traditions, with recent studies suggesting between three and five million Australians own cryptocurrency. The availability of smartphone apps for cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets means an increased number of Australian taxpayers are now accessing this new and emerging form of investment.

In recent years, Australia’s family law courts have at the trial level commonly treated digital assets, particularly cryptocurrency, as property available for adjustment and distribution in property settlement proceedings. We are yet to see a direct challenge to this at the appellate level, but it needs to be remembered that cryptocurrency and NFTs are similar to existing technologies the property rights attached to which we take for granted (e.g. digital bank balances such as PayPal accounts or patents and trademarks). There is little reason to think digital assets that use blockchain technology will not continue to be treated as “property” by the Australia family law courts.

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Our Free Reads are sourced from technical papers presented by our faculty at recent  Webinars  or Conferences.