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Parramatta Leagues Club

The Parramatta Leagues club is a well-known Western Sydney establishment and home of the Parramatta Eels National Rugby League team.  The Club serves as a pillar to the community, a place where locals and visitors have enjoyed excellent dining and entertainment for over 58 years. Delivering a high standard of hospitality and entertainment to members and their guests requires efficient systems to recruit and manage staff. Parramatta Leagues Club HR Advisor, Nely Moat and Corporate Services Manager, Damian Dooley, oversee HR processes and adoption of enableHR across the Club and the Parramatta Eels. At one time, they manage services for over 400 employees, contractors and volunteers at the Eels and the Leagues. As such, the company takes great care in ensuring that all HR processes and documentation for each category of staff member is compliant. To read more about Parramatta Leagues Club’s journey with enableHR, click on the image below to download the full case study....

ASX-listed Manufacturing Company

FCB has assisted a large national manufacturer to smoothly consolidate three separate sites, with three separate workforces and three separate industrial governance, into a single custom built facility. Relocating a factory is an extremely complex process in managing the logistics of the move in addition to maintaining production (if possible) and work orders. A key component in any successful manufacturing business is its people. Relocating a workforce as part of a factory relocation is highly stressful and resource intensive exercise. It requires careful planning or it risks the loss of the workforce, a huge redundancy pay bill or alternatively it may present an opportunity for disaffected employees, or Unions, to lay a series of claims on the business in return for not disrupting the whole relocation process. The background One of the 3 sites was highly unionised and contained generous conditions that were negotiated over many rounds of enterprise agreement negotiations, spanning over 15 years. The conditions were overly restrictive and if applied across the new site, it would have substantially restricted the business’ future production flexibility. Our...

Boral

CFMEU v Boral: Order for discovery of CFMEU officials’ details upheld. On 17 June 2015, the High Court of Australia dismissed an appeal by the CFMEU against a decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal (which in turn upheld an earlier decision of the Victorian Supreme Court) that the CFMEU must make available to Boral documents containing certain details about Victorian CFMEU officials. FCB Workplace Law represented Boral in this matter. The background Boral alleged that Joseph Myles, a CFMEU organiser ordered a blockade of the Regional Rail Link construction project in Footscray, Victoria on 16 May 2013. As a result of this blockade, Boral Concrete trucks were prevented from delivering concrete to the site, in contravention of an injunction issued by the Supreme Court in April 2013 ordering the CFMEU to not prevent or interfere with Boral’s delivery of its products to construction sites in Victoria. On 22 August 2013, Boral filed a summons in the Supreme Court that the CFMEU be punished for contempt of Court in relation to the blockade in contravention of the injunction. On 22 October 2013, Boral sought a discovery order that the CFMEU provide Boral with specific...

Allity

FCB helps Allity overcome union opposition. The background Allity was formed in 2013 after purchasing Lend Lease’s Primelife aged-care business for $270m. Since then, it has conducted a number of further market acquisitions, including the purchase of 10 homes in South Australia for about $140m. It is now one of the largest for-profit aged care providers nationally and is regarded as a market leader. As a result of its acquisitions, Allity had inherited a multitude of different and outdated enterprise agreements, which didn’t align with its operational models or workplace objectives. As such, it planned to embark on an extensive process of renegotiation with unions across 4 States. Unfortunately, the industrial environment – especially in Victoria – was incredibly hostile to Allity’s industrial strategy, with unions actively opposing its proposed terms and conditions and prepared to engage in significant industrial disruption to further their claims. As a large, for-profit provider, backed by private equity investors, Allity’s business model may well represent the future for aged care service provision in Australia. However, it also represents a...

Water NSW

Workplace relations strategy for Water NSW. The background Prior to 1 January 2015, State Water Corporation (SWC) operated as a state owned corporation, managing and operating bulk water infrastructure and water storage systems in NSW (outside Sydney metro). Separately, the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) operated as a NSW government agency, providing similar services in and around the greater Sydney metro region. In 2014, the NSW government decided on a merger of equals approach to the SWC and SCA. By Act of Parliament, on 1 January 2015 Water NSW commenced operating as an amalgam of the former SWC and SCA. The challenge In early 2014, FCB were retained to provide preliminary strategic and process advice in relation to the transaction. In September 2014, FCB were retained to develop, advise and act in relation to a workplace relations strategy that would allow Water NSW to commenced operations on 'day 1' with an integrated workforce (comprising the staff of SWC and SCA), where all terms and conditions of employment were preserved via compliant approved industrial instruments. The project involved dealing with the full range of employment and industrial...

General Practice NSW Ltd

Winding down a workforce: ending an era with grace. The background As part of a major policy reform, our client - a successful and highly regarded membership NGO - lost the entirety of its Commonwealth funding. This effectively left it without revenue and unable to continue operating beyond the end of its existing funding period. As a consequence, and during a period of significant uncertainty, the organisation needed to: transition its core service delivery functions to other industry bodies, retrench the majority of its workforce, guide and support its members through their own major workforce transitions and finally, reconstitute itself as smaller, leaner advocacy-based representative body. Our client’s workforce priorities included complying with its employee consultation obligations and minimising the risk of employee claims. Just as importantly, however, it wished to maintain the continuity of services to the broader community it supported, while reducing any negative impact on staff, members and other stakeholders. The approach FCB assisted the NGO’s leaders to plan and implement its workforce consultation and wind down strategies and...

Australian Retailers Association (ARA)

HR outsourcing partnership with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA). The background In 2009 the ARA entered into an outsourcing partnership with FCB. The partnership was the first of its kind in Australia, delivering a national service delivery model though telephone, web-based and consulting solutions. As part of this solution FCB provides approximately 650-850 telephone calls per month to ARA members. Our approach A dedicated telephone advisory line for 5,000 members to access employee relations specialists An online retail specific HR system accessible for all members to assist in legislative compliance, hiring, employee management, termination and record keeping obligations Expert employment consulting to handle the individual needs of retailers, representation and advocacy in industrial courts and tribunals on behalf of the ARA and its members Tailored publications and member communications detailing the multiple ER updates and award information. The outcome Comprehensive and specialist advice provided online or by telephone Improved and expanded member service offering assisting to enhance member retention and attract new members...

Illawarra Catholic Club

Illawarra Catholic Club Improves HR Information Management. Background Illawarra Catholic Club Ltd is a registered social and general clubs business that operates two leading venues in Hurstville and Menai under the Club Central banner. The business provides premier entertainment facilities and is a base for a number of sporting groups from netball to indoor bowls. As an important part of the St George and Menai communities, Illawarra Catholic Club supports many local charities and community groups, and annually contributes funds to these causes. Headquartered in Hurstville, Illawarra Catholic Club has a staff of 150 employees plus contractors and volunteers across its multiple venues. The club prides itself on its innovative employment relations practice, and a customer service offering that is second to none. Challenges For Illawarra Catholic Club, just like any labour intensive business in the hospitality industry, it’s critical to create and maintain an efficient workforce, and provide employees with a safe place to work. As their employees fall under a number of different award, the Club has to ensure that all employment contracts are strictly...

Greenwood Early Education Centres

Background Established a little over eighteen months ago, Greenwood Early Education Centres (Greenwood) offers an exciting, innovative and fresh proposition in the Australian childcare landscape. With a vision of providing the highest quality care and education in early childhood, Greenwood is passionate about providing children with the tools they need to be successful in all aspects of their lives. Greenwood is also committed to being an employer of choice with a focus on employee engagement and recognition. With a Support Office in Gladesville, Greenwood opened its first early education centre in Concord in March this year. Additional centres in the Sydney metropolitan area at Macquarie Park, Brookvale, and Bronte have also been earmarked for opening later this year. The business currently employs 37 individuals across a number of childhood teaching and junior educator roles along with support staff, a chefs and specialist Partners such as a nutritionists, Yoga Teacher, as well as Education Experts Greenwood plans to increase its labour force to 200 over the next two years. Challenges When Malcolm Honey joined Greenwood last year, the company had solid HR...

Super Retail Group

Aligned Partnership With Super Retail Group. The background Super Retail Group is a large, well established and respected retail establishment with approximately 12,000 employees across the entire group. Home to brands such as Amart Sports, Avanti Fitness, BCF Boating Camping Fishing, Goldcross Cycles, Rays, Rebel, Supercheap Auto, Workout World and Super Retail Commercial, the group has operations in Australia, New Zealand and China. Given the size and publically listed nature of the organisation, Super Retail Group has taken great steps towards embedding their corporate values across the organisation which is at the centre of all people management strategies. FCB has worked with Super Retail Group since 2013 on all of their workplace relations matters and from the outset it has been a true partnership of shared values and a common understanding in terms of how matters should be approached. Upon the commencement of our partnership we have taken a great deal of time in gaining a fundamental understanding of Super Retail Group’s structure, corporate values, mode of operation, and approach to workplace relations matters. It is no coincidence that taking the...

Financial Institutions

Move to single authorised deposit taking institution. The background In 2008, merger negotiations between two Immigration Compliance Associated with Merger got underway in a move towards a single ADI. Each bank had a significant sponsored expatriate population and attendant obligations under Australia’s immigration law framework. The brief The clients’ risk and compliance considerations needed to be managed through a dense weave of corporate, employment, financial and migration legislation. The brief, given to Alex Kaufman, was to meticulously time the transfers and have the clients and their sponsored transferees emerge from the process without enlivening employer sanctions, or incurring any breaches on the part of the visa holders or sponsors. The solution The team conducted a thorough audit on both institutions’ expatriate workforce. This required an assessment of raw expat numbers, nationalities, remuneration structure, position nomenclature for each of the home and target institutions, promotions since commencement, changes in family composition, renewals or variations to contractual terms and visa expiry. We then prepared a suite of...

Solotel

Solotel manages risk and compliance with enableHR. Prominent hospitality group, Solotel, has transformed the management of its employees by using enableHR to resolve its HR/IR compliance risk across its 19 hotels and restaurants. Previously, the group operations manager had to physically visit sites to assist venue managers with managing their employees, now with enableHR, the 19 sites in the Solotel group can be managed remotely, freeing up the operations manager to focus on higher level support for managers. enableHR, with its web based architecture, provides venue managers with an easy to use solution that allows them to manage employees through al stages of their employment lifecycle and workplace health and safety incidents. Swift expansion requires flexible approach Solotel has been operating bars and pubs for 24 years and possesses a diverse portfolio of hospitality venues committed to providing high quality hospitality and service. Solotel creates unique establishments that cater to different markets, localities and customers, including the spectacularly stylish Opera Bar, the Parisian styled Quay Bar and the Eastern Suburbs institution, The...