Welcome to WestmoreJacobs®

WestmoreJacobs® can represent:

Employers to defend legal claims by former or current employees;
Employers who wish to commence legal proceedings against a (usually) former employee because, for example, that employee is taking the employer’s clients in breach of the employee’s employment contract.

Examples of legal claims we can help employers to defend include:

Unfair dismissal claims;
General protections claims;
Discrimination claims;
Breach of employment contract claims;

Bullying claims;
Disputes with unions;
Other employment related claims. This includes matters in Victorian and Federal Courts and Tribunals.

Advisory services are best summarised as dealing with the legal side of HR. This is sometimes called “front end” or “preventative” work. It is work employers do to reduce the legal risk of employees (and their unions) from successfully suing employers. In broad terms, we help employers deal with 3 levels of problems.

Very challenging problems

These are the tough problems. They are typically situations where your organisation does not know what to do next, and there are big risks to getting it wrong. Examples might include:

Managing an ill or injured employee, including potential dismissal of that employee;
Potential dismissal of an employee for poor performance or conduct;
Large scale restructures and redundancies;
Developing an Enterprise Bargaining strategy;
Dealing with threatened or actual industrial action.

Challenging problems

The following are examples of challenging problems we can help you with:

Drafting complicated employment contracts;
Drafting tailored Enterprise Agreements;
Navigating the strict procedural rules for seeking approval of an Enterprise Agreement;
Managing poor employee performance or conduct;
Restructures and restructures;
Bullying, harassment and other employee complaints.

Standard problems

These are relatively standard problems. Examples include drafting straight forward employment contracts and policies, and advising you about the types of claims an employee is likely to bring in a particular situation.