IEL Elite

Overview

Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s prominent labour and employment department is based in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney.

John Tuck leads the group from Melbourne, which has strengthened its offering in the past year through a number of significant lateral hires.

Notably, the group has recruited two leading names from international powerhouse Herbert Smith Freehills: Anthony Longland joined the Perth office in November 2021, and Kirsty Faichen joined the Brisbane team in October 2022. 

The department is the Australian member of the Ius Laboris alliance, giving it access to an impressive network of leading employment law specialists worldwide.

Clients range from major international corporates or Australian household names, through to public sector organisations and educational bodies.

Specialisms

The team advises across all matters relating to labour, employment, and health and safety, including on novel issues such as wage compliance and worker classification.

As part of this, it regularly acts for huge global companies on their Australian workforce matters. A prominent example is the ongoing advice to oil giant BP, which it has been advising for more than 20 years on a host of issues – from health and safety through to collective bargaining agreements.

Another example of a major multinational client is new client ByteDance, which instructed a group, led by Tuck, to draft a mandatory covid-19 vaccination policy for TikTok Australia.

A significant area of activity for the group is internal investigations, including those into serious allegations of misconduct and/or involving whistleblowers.

The group is also well placed to act on disputes. Its contentious work regularly includes representation before the Fair Work Commission, as evidenced in Melbourne-based Sarah Clarke’s successful defence of energy supplier AGL in a dispute relating to an unfair dismissal claim.

The team is also frequently instructed to assist with collective labour relations, including disputes involving threats of industrial action. For example, Graeme Watson advised bookshop chain Readings after staff voted to join a union and enter into a company-level bargaining agreement. Watson’s team assisted with union negotiations, and advised the retailer on how to proceed with unionised staff.

Clients