School Law: Workplace Law Masterclass
WEB213N03C: Explore the many workplace legal risks, rights and obligations of schools in this comprehensive examination of employment laws all school need to know and understand.
Description
For Teachers:
Attend and earn 4 Professional Development Hours (NSW)
Completing this conference will contribute 3 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority PD addressing 6.2.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW
Attend and earn 4 CPD points (QLD, WA, SA)
Attending this conference will contribute 3 hours of CPD addressing the standards as listed from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining teacher registration
7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: understand the implications of, and comply with, relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.
Attend and earn 4 hours of PD (VIC)
Attending this conference will contribute 4 hours of PD addressing the standards as listed from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining
Proficient Teacher registration in Victoria.
7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: understand the implications of, and comply with, relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.
For Lawyers:
Attend and earn 4 CPD units in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Chair Dr Steve Middleton, Principal, Berwick Grammar School
9.00am to 10.00am Termination without Tears: How to Dismiss Difficult Staff and Defend Claims
- The cultural importance of ensuring schools monitor and act upon inappropriate behaviours in schools
- Best practice tips to reduce legal claims arising from the dismissal of teachers and general staff in schools
- Common mistakes that trip up schools during dismissal and discipline processes that often result in litigation
- The value of Codes of Conduct in enforcing acceptable standards of behaviour
- Legal tips and strategies to manage litigation when teachers or general staff sue the school
Presented by Paul O'Halloran, Partner, Colin Biggers & Paisley
10.00am to 11.00am What Your School Can Learn from How Courts Deal with General Protection Claims
- Managing employees to avoid general protections claims
- How to successfully defend general protections claims
- What constitutes a "workplace right" and "adverse action" in the school context?
- Dealing with the reverse onus
- What penalties and damages could a school be exposed to?
Presented by Michaela Moloney, Partner, K&L Gates
11.00am to 11.10am Break for Morning Tea
11.10am to 12.10pm Effectively Responding to Employee Complaints of Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and Workplace Bullying
- When is it necessary to investigate a workplace complaint?
- What does the law and best practice require for the conduct of an effective workplace investigation?
- How have the pandemic, #metoo and Black Lives Matter impacted workplace complaints and the conduct of investigations?
- What are the key issues that schools, in particular, should be aware of?
Presented by Georgina Alexandrou, Special Counsel, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
12.10pm to 1.10pm Managing the Employment Risks in Restructure in a COVID-19 Normal Era
As we adopt new technologies and working arrangements during and post Covid 19, we need to manage workplace restructuring. Both teaching and non-teaching staff are being asked to utilise new technologies, change hours of work and roster patterns, work from home and change duties. Some will no longer be required as demands drop and others will be in high demand for specialised skills. Schools should be constantly assessing whether their workforce meets the current needs. Restructuring will present challenges such as:
- changing hours of work in a way that complies with enterprise agreements, awards and contracts
- implementing redundancies
- redistributing duties and workloads
- award and agreement obligations to consult when introducing major workplace changes such as new technology
- providing training and upskilling
Presented by Leanne Nickels, Partner, DLA Piper
Presenters
Dr Steve Middleton
Dr Steven Middleton is currently the Head of Berwick Grammar School, an emerging independent school for boys in Melbourne’s outer south east. Over the past two decades Dr Middleton has worked in a variety of leadership roles in various independent School’s in both Sydney and Melbourne including The King’s School, Knox Grammar School, Carey Baptist Grammar, Brighton Grammar and Haileybury College. Dr Middleton has a passion for student growth and development, his Doctoral Thesis from The University of Melbourne focused on leadership and character education for adolescents. Steve has written and presented extensively on issues of school culture, strategic leadership, student well-being and achievement in recent years.
Paul O'Halloran
Paul is a partner in the Employment and Safety team at Colin Biggers & Paisley and an Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations. He helps resolve complex matters in the workplace, with a particular focus on corporate and institutional culture, child safety and protection, serious misconduct, employee misdeeds and reputational risk. Paul has particular expertise in the education sector, advising independent non-government schools, governing bodies, religious orders, denominations and child care providers on contemporary employment and education law issues involving staff, students and parents. His recent experience includes: defending non-government Catholic schools in the Federal Court and Fair Work Commission in relation to numerous high-profile departures of teachers; defending the third largest labour hire company in the world on one of the largest employment law class actions in Australia involving hundreds of casual employees; advising a non-government school on its child safety framework, employee relations strategy and contemporary school governance practices following high-profile media scrutiny; advising Boral in a landmark case against the CFMEU in a successful appeal to the High Court of Australia (in one of the decades most significant industrial relations cases against a union). Paul played a critical role in State and Federal judicial and court administration for a 10 year period while working at the Supreme Court of Victoria and Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, where he worked with two Chief Justices. He also held an executive position at the Family Court of Australia where he was responsible for overall delivery of registry services to the judiciary and self-represented litigants as well as the management and supervision of 60 registry staff. Paul has a Master of Laws (University of Melbourne), Bachelor of Laws (Hons) (Macquarie University) and Advanced Diploma (Business) (RMIT University). He is also an Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations (Law Institute of Victoria). Paul was admitted to practice in 2008. Paul joined Colin Biggers & Paisley in 2017.
Michaela Moloney
Michaela Moloney has over 15 years expertise acting in all aspects of employment, industrial and discrimination law matters. A key part of her practice includes providing litigation support for public sector organisations. This has included defending claims on behalf of the Department of Education. Michaela conducts workplace investigations and has also assisted a number of clients manage outsourced investigations. Michaela also provides advice in relation to performance management, disciplinary issues, managing ill and injured workers, enterprise bargaining and termination of employment for a number of government departments, agencies and public sector bodies. Michaela manages a large litigation practice and has developed significant expertise in quickly identify key legal issues in dispute, working with key stakeholders to determine an appropriate litigation strategy and where matters are unable to resolve, determining an approach to proceedings to ensure that they can be run in a cost effective manner and taking into account organisational objectives.. Michaela has successfully defended a number of large employment claims unfair dismissal, discrimination, general protections and breach of contract in the state courts and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and Federal Court of Australia. Michaela is particularly highly regarded by clients for her ability to think outside the square taking a practical and proactive approach in seeking to achieve a favourable and early resolution of matters. In addition, Michaela is a mediator and is able to facilitate mediations in all areas of employment and industrial law including bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment. For over 10 years Michaela has been a director on the Board of a secondary college and has chaired the Board for the past 3 years giving her significant insights into issues currently facing secondary schools.
Georgina Alexandrou
Georgina is an accomplished legal practitioner with 20 years top-tier domestic and international experience in human resources, workplace relations and discrimination law. Georgina is a senior leader in the Brisbane team of Leading Employment Law Firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Georgina works across a wide range of industries, including education, mining and energy, integrated services, retail, manufacturing, medical and finance. Georgina advises clients on all aspects of the employment relationship, including the interpretation and application of employment contracts, industrial instruments including modern awards and enterprise agreements, workplace policies, and employment legislation. A significant part of Georgina’s practice relates to her expertise in workplace investigations. She regularly manages and conducts workplace investigation for her clients, particularly relating to allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and workplace bullying. Georgina practiced law for six years in the US, where she worked for leading Australian and US law firms. She is admitted as a solicitor of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Queensland. Georgina is a member of the Queensland Law Society and the Industrial Relations Society of Queensland and holds a Master of Laws.
Leanne Nickels
Leanne Nickels is an employment law practitioner with over 20 years' experience assisting clients in, managing workforce challenges, achieving compliance with workplace laws and resolving workplace, conflict at the individual and collective level. Leanne is experienced across a broad spectrum of workplace issues including workplace dispute resolution, legislative and award compliance, managing disciplinary processes, privacy, contract preparation, enterprise bargaining and investigations. As an advocate, Leanne has appeared in the Fair Work Commission, the Federal Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court, the District Court of Western Australia, and the Supreme Courts of Western Australia and New South Wales. Leanne is frequently requested to present at seminars and conferences and is a well-regarded speaker on workplace issues and employment law best practice. Since 2014, Leanne has been recognised as a 'Best Lawyer' for employment law by the Australian Financial Review and she is listed as a 'Recommended' employment lawyer by Doyles' guide to the legal profession.