As we approach the conclusion of yet another busy year, our Employment Relations & WHS team reflects on 2024’s accomplishments, developments, and industry trends, and predicts what the coming year ahead may have in store.
“2024 has been a year where a substantial number of new workplace laws have had time to operate, we have started to see some clarification of their effect, and then employers were greeted with a new avalanche of laws (many starting on 26 August 2024). This has been added to by a late end of year present from the High Court!
Our clients across all sectors have had to manage continuing labour shortages, increasing costs of managing their team, whilst grappling with new laws, and preparing for further changes to come.”
Tim Capelin – Practice Team leader
Industry insights
The year 2024 saw new laws from 2023 and early 2024 become embedded and businesses determining the best way to manage in the new environment.
In August employers were also inundated with a further array of new laws whether they be changes to the definition of casuals, changes to the definition of employee, potential for independent contractors to obtain employee like protections, new unfair contract laws, plus the sometimes misleadingly reported right to disconnect.
To add to the human resources profession’s end of year reading and listening was last week’s High Court decision in Elisha v Vision Australia.
Whether you accept the policy justifications for the changes or not, there is a lot to absorb and then determine whether business practices need to change as a result.
Team movements
We welcomed Danielle Lisbon (Associate), Maida Mujkic (Associate) and Holly-Rose Biskup-Harwig (Lawyer) this year, and celebrated the well-deserved promotion of Essi Merivaara (Associate) in January, as well as John Evans (Special Counsel) and Lucie Lawrence-Wall (Senior Associate) in July.
We are excited to see our team continue to grow and deliver excellent service to our clients.
Significant matters
Throughout 2024, we’ve extensively supported all non-government sectors of the economy. From education to digital services, manufacturing to biotech, transportation to retail, resources to financial services, and not-for-profit organisations, we have guided clients through evolving employment laws.
We’ve defended WHS prosecutions, assisted with enterprise bargaining, updated employment documents, trained teams, represented clients in employment litigation, and offered strategic and day-to-day advisory services, staying fully engaged with our clients’ employment concerns.
Recognition
This year, our national Employment Relations team and its members received outstanding recognition. We thank our clients and colleagues and look forward to continued success in 2025.
The Best Lawyers in Australia
In the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia, 54 of Piper Alderman’s lawyers are recognised across 43 legal areas including the following partners in our Employment Relations team:
- Tim Capelin – Health and Aged Care Law, Labour and Employment Law
- Chris Hartigan – Education Law, Employee Benefits Law, Labour and Employment Law
- Tim Lange – Labour and Employment Law
- Erin McCarthy – Education Law, Human Rights Law, Labour and Employment Law
- Ben Motro – Human Rights Law
Doyle’s Guide
In the 2024 edition of Doyle’s Guide, a number of our team members were highlighted as Preeminent, Recommended, Leading or Rising Star lawyers, including:
- Emily Haar – Leading Employment Lawyer (Employer Representation) SA
- Erin McCarthy – Preeminent Employment Lawyer (Employer Representation) SA | Recommended Employment Lawyer (Employer Representation) Australia | Leading Workplace Health & Safety Lawyer SA
- Andrew Stewart – Recommended Employment Lawyer (Employer Representation) SA
- Emily Slaytor – Rising Star for Employment & WHS Law, SA
Client Feedback
We were also delighted to receive some very kind feedback from clients and contacts during the research process for the legal directories, including the following testimonials from The Legal 500 Asia Pacific: Australia, 2024 edition:
“Piper Alderman’s employment practice is unique in our experience in that not only do you have exceptional access to their Partners, but the depth of knowledge across the team and the lack of silos ensures support is always available.”
“Very genuine and very approachable. They are also prompt with their responses, and the advice is always technically smart, tailored to our needs, and immensely helpful with our decision-making. We trust their advice.”
“Personal service – consistency in advice and working with a team that understands our business.”
“Very knowledgeable team who are always willing to educate and share knowledge, explaining advice clearly and concisely.”
“The law firm has unique capability in industrial relations.”
“Tim Lange’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Australian employment law is matched only by his ability to think strategically from the inception of a matter.”
“Ben Motro was an exceptional support through a series of challenging issues. Ben was always very easy to get a hold of, he has a great disposition which makes working with him an absolute pleasure.”
“Erin McCarthy – very easy to work with, pragmatic and patient.”
Empowering clients
We do our best to ensure our clients remain up to date with laws affecting employment. We do this via: insights, webinars, in-person learning, training and our highly popular podcast – ‘Employment Law for the Time Poor’.
‘Employment Law for the Time Poor’ podcast series, allows subscribers to stay up to date as they travel to work, exercise or undertake a myriad of activities whilst keeping up to date on the latest in employment law.
This year we continued to offer our (Masterclass) Workplace Training Series workshops, which offer comprehensive training solutions to ensure our clients are developing the expertise of their own people, as opposed to relying on third-party specialists. We are excited to continue to share this series with our clients throughout 2025.
