Workforce arrangements, industrial strategy and work health and safety are key drivers of operational performance, institutional credibility and transactional outcomes.
An organisation's earnings, reputation and regulatory standing can be reshaped by contested employment decisions, industrial disputation, significant underpayment exposure or serious workplace incidents. Thomsons advises boards, executives, regulators and in-house teams on employment, industrial relations and work health and safety issues.
Our advice is direct, practical, commercial and anchored in best practice. We assist our clients to achieve their operational objectives, minimise risk and comply with their legal obligations in a complex and highly regulated environment.
Our clients include ASX-listed employers, multinationals, universities, Commonwealth and State government departments and regulators. We are appointed to the legal panels for the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments, and act for a large number of Commonwealth agencies, the Department of Treasury and Finance (Victoria), the Department of Education (Victoria) and Victoria Police on industrial and workforce assignments.
Areas of expertise
Clients turn to us to navigate workplace relations issues, including consultation and workforce reform, and to manage large-scale compliance matters such as underpayments.
Our employment team draft, negotiate, interpret and apply individual employment arrangements, and provide practical, commercial guidance on day-to-day issues including misconduct, underperformance, flexible working arrangements, and the management of ill and injured workers.
Advice extends to Award coverage and application, payroll, superannuation and other regulatory requirements, with clients supported through large-scale compliance issues including underpayments.
We defends clients' interests before the Fair Work Commission, Federal Court and State industrial tribunals in collective and individual employment disputes, including underpayment claims, unfair dismissals, discrimination and general protections applications.
Clients are supported to set, interpret and apply their collective workforce arrangements, including through enterprise bargaining and advice on Award coverage and application.
Industrial strategy is designed and implemented across a range of contexts, including the establishment of new entities and agencies, transfer of business and other significant workforce change.
Our employment lawyers help clients navigate workplace relations issues including industrial action and disputation, consultation and workforce reform, and large-scale compliance matters such as underpayments.
Thomsons defends clients' interests before the Fair Work Commission, Federal Court and State industrial tribunals in collective disputes, including underpayment claims and disputes concerning enterprise agreements, Awards and other industrial instruments.
Executive engagement, separation and post-employment restraints carry significant risk. We draft and negotiate executive, board and CEO contracts, independent contractor arrangements and separation deeds. We advise on confidentiality, restraint enforcement, gardening leave and succession, and design workplace policies and compliance frameworks that hold up under regulatory scrutiny and in litigation.
We support ASX-listed companies, private equity-owned businesses, Commonwealth and State entities and universities setting executive terms and governance frameworks appropriate to their accountability settings.
Remuneration design sits at the intersection of employment, tax, corporate and financial services regulation. We structure executive pay, short and long-term incentive plans, equity and performance rights schemes, deferred remuneration and termination arrangements. We advise on BEAR and FAR implications for financial services clients, ASX disclosure obligations, remuneration report preparation and the treatment of incentive arrangements in transactions and insolvencies.
We coordinate with our Tax, Corporate Advisory and Financial Services practices to deliver integrated advice on remuneration structures that align executive accountability with organisational strategy.
Serious misconduct, sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination and whistleblower complaints demand procedurally sound and defensible responses. We conduct independent investigations for public and private sector clients where credibility, impartiality and natural justice are critical. We advise boards and executives on disclosure, disciplinary action and stakeholder communication, and manage the litigation exposure that often follows.
Our team has conducted investigations for Commonwealth and State government agencies, major public hospitals and universities. We act on highly sensitive assignments involving senior public office holders, parliamentarians, ministerial staff and parliamentary standards processes.
Training is a critical control in managing employment, industrial and work health and safety risk. Tailored programs are delivered to boards, executives, managers and front-line workforces across the public and private sectors, covering officer due diligence under WHS laws, psychosocial safety, sexual harassment and the positive duty, discrimination and respectful workplaces, workplace investigations, performance management and disciplinary processes, enterprise bargaining and industrial action, and incident response readiness.
Programs are developed by the lawyers who advise on and defend the underlying matters, drawing on the team's experience across more than 600 WHS regulatory investigations and 250 WHS prosecutions, contested coronial inquests, large-scale underpayment exposures and complex workforce disputes. Content is built around the client's regulatory environment, workforce profile and risk posture rather than delivered as off-the-shelf modules.
We also run simulation exercises and board-level briefings on serious incident response, regulator engagement and crisis management, designed to test and strengthen governance frameworks before they are tested by an event.
Serious workplace incidents place officers and organisations under immediate regulatory, criminal, commercial and reputational pressure. When things go wrong, we guide organisations through the investigation and litigation process, including interfaces with regulators, police, stakeholders, coroners and prosecutors.
Our team has managed more than 600 WHS regulatory investigations and more than 250 WHS prosecutions across every Australian jurisdiction. We have an enviable track record in achieving acquittals for organisations. We act for Commonwealth and State government departments, infrastructure, transport and resources operators, healthcare providers and insurers.
We take a forward-looking approach, advising government and commercial clients on the legal risks facing both organisations and their directors. This guidance extends across the full spectrum of business activity: from core services and major projects to procurement, mergers and acquisitions, governance frameworks, reporting obligations, and periods of organisational change.
We advised Safe Work Australia, the national policy body responsible for the model WHS laws, on its Best Practice Review of those laws. We also advise on persistent and emerging health and safety risks including health and safety vulnerability, psychosocial safety, complex supply-chains and climate and technology-related safety risks.
Workforce decisions in the public sector are shaped by unique statutory and policy frameworks, against a background of political accountability and heightened public scrutiny. We advise Commonwealth, State and Territory departments, statutory authorities, regulators, parliamentary bodies and universities on the full range of workforce, industrial and safety issues.
Our work includes the drafting and negotiation of industrial instruments, including enterprise agreements, collective and individual determinations, and statutory appointments. Our team has assisted multiple government clients navigate industrial disputation, agreement approval challenges and industrial action. We have assisted with machinery of government changes, and the establishment of new Commonwealth and State bodies, including setting terms and conditions for large and operationally complex workforces. We advise at the most senior levels, including Boards, agency heads and senior executives, on complex employment issues including involving senior office holders and ministerial staff. We regularly advise and undertake investigations under public interest disclosure frameworks, as well as advising on and conducting reviews of action and other forms of statutory review. We have conducted public sector governance reviews and advised on the health and safety frameworks underpinning the delivery of essential public services.
Cross-border workforce arrangements carry layered obligations across migration, tax, employment and safety regimes. We advise on employer-sponsored visas, labour agreements, sponsor compliance, secondments and global assignment structures, and on the interaction between Australian workplace laws and offshore employment terms.
We coordinate with our Tax and Corporate Advisory practices for integrated cross-border structuring.
Our experience
Commonwealth and State Authorities – Complex executive issues
Advising multiple Commonwealth and NSW statutory authorities (including at Board level) on a range of complex employment issues including in relation to senior executives and office holders.
Border Express/FMH Goup – National restructure
Acting for Border Express and FMH Group on employment and industrial relations issues during a national restructure, including enterprise agreement variations, employee transfers and bargaining with the Transport Workers' Union.
University of Western Australia – Entitlements review program
Acting for the University of Western Australia on its Employment Entitlements Review Program, covering a workforce of approximately 4,000 employees, regulator engagement with the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Western Australian Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety, and instruction of external experts.
Commonwealth and State departments – Workforce assignments
Advising Commonwealth, NSW and Victorian Government departments on workforce strategy, bargaining, investigations, employment and discrimination litigation and safety assignments under the Commonwealth and Victorian Government legal panels.
Commonwealth agencies – Enterprise bargaining
Acting for over 20 Commonwealth agencies and entities in Australian Public Service-wide enterprise bargaining, including managing industrial action and defending approval challenges
Statutory authorities – Complex employment issues
Advising multiple Commonwealth and NSW statutory authorities (including at Board level) on a range of complex employment issues including in relation to senior executives and office holders
Australian National University – Employment, student, governance issues
Advising The Australian National University on complex employment, student and corporate governance issues arising from its position as Australia's only university established under Commonwealth legislation.
Health and safety incidents– Investigations and prosecutions
Managing more than 600 WHS regulatory investigations and 250 WHS prosecutions across all Australian jurisdictions, including the Commonwealth.
Corporates and officers – Serious incident responses
Representing organisations and officers in serious incident responses, contested criminal prosecutions and coronial inquests.
Mergers and acquisitions – Health and safety advice
Advising on the employment and health and safety aspects of major mergers, acquisitions, divestments and infrastructure projects, including due diligence, transfer of business and post-completion integration.