Employment Law

Employment relationships are complex.  In our experience as employment lawyers in Queensland, many problems that arise during the employment relationship are often reduced by choosing the right staff, having a clear and balanced employment agreement and managing employees fairly.  However, this is not fail-safe.  That is why at Argon Law, we provide legal advice on employment issues and help employers in the development of precedent agreements and policies to get it right from the beginning.

At Argon Law, we frequently draft, negotiate, review and provide advice on employment contracts, modern awards and other industrial instruments.  Our services include:

• Drafting employment contracts for employers and changes to employment contracts for employees
• Advising employers and employees on the availability and enforcement of post-separation restraint of trade
• Risk management advice including advice on entitlements (e.g. annual leave; parental leave), wage claims, flexible work arrangements, reasonable management action, altering work conditions, exposure under the general protections and performance management.

In today's competitive business environment, restraint of trade clauses have become a staple inclusion in many employment contracts. These clauses aim to protect an employer's legitimate business interests by restricting an employee's ability to engage in certain activities after leaving the company.

When used properly, restraint of trade clauses can play an important role in protecting confidential information, client relationships, and the goodwill of a business. When drafted poorly or applied incorrectly, they can be unenforceable and expose employers to unnecessary risk.

Our solicitors have experience in helping employees to negotiate and include fairer terms into their employment agreements. We advise on restraint of trade, indemnities, entitlements, discrimination, bullying, unfair dismissal and unlawful termination. 

Employment policies provide a framework which enable workplaces to be managed in a consistent and effective way. This improves productivity, compliance and helps businesses to save money.

If you are an employer, we can help you in the development, review and application of employment policies including those related to leave entitlements, equality and diversity, bullying, health and safety, drug and alcohol, intellectual property, social media, confidentiality, conflicts of interest and the personal use of business facilities.

Redundancies can be difficult for employers as much as they are for employees.

For employers, things become problematic not only because of financial and business pressure, but because the requirements needed to prove a redundancy is genuine are much easier in theory than they are practice.  

This is especially so if:

• the focus is on the employee rather than the position.
• there are competing grounds for termination for any employee who might be affected; or
• the employee believes there are issues that suggest the redundancy is not genuine.

At Argon Law, we have experience in helping employers navigate through all aspects of redundancy.