In 2024, a light continued to be shined on corporate culture claims, following several years of increased media scrutiny of cases in which individuals (some high profile, others not) have been accused of inappropriate conduct, including sexual harassment. What these cases demonstrate is the changing public sentiment towards inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, driving a change in the way that organisations respond to and address these kinds of claims. In one case, we saw a large Australian company voluntarily publish publicly its external report following a review of allegations of inappropriate behaviour. This might be indicative of a rising “high water mark” in corporate accountability, particularly in light of increasing regulation with respect to psychosocial hazards and of course, the positive duty to prevent sex-based discrimination (including sexual harassment) in the workplace, which has now been in effect for over two years.  

In 2025, another area that might be broadly bundled under the moniker of “corporate culture”, will be the issue of free speech and political opinions being aired in the workplace – a notoriously vexed area that can present a myriad of challenges for employers to address, for a range of reasons. There is no shortage of people who hold strong views, and this has the potential to become an increasingly challenging area to navigate for employers in light of political developments overseas, as well as other significant local events. This may also pose psychosocial risks in the workplace, which will become increasingly difficult to control. 

Whistleblower frameworks will also be an area of much focus in 2025, with the five-year statutory review of the federal whistleblowing regime. This follows the range of recommendations made for the regime more generally by the Senate Economics References Committee in July 2024, including – of note – “pecuniary incentives and compensation for whistleblowers who make a substantiated disclosure”. Essentially, establishing a financial incentive to whistleblowers to make a disclosure where there would be a “significant public benefit”, or otherwise where that person might experience significant personal detriment in making such a disclosure. 

In February 2025, a new bill was introduced to Federal Parliament known as the Whistleblower Protection Authority Bill 2025 (No. 2) (Cth). The proposed Bill seeks to establish a new independent statutory authority which will be empowered to receive and facilitate the investigation of whistleblower disclosures, investigate the mistreatment of whistleblowers and undertake enforcement activities as necessary. The proposed Bill has been referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report.  

With this level of scrutiny applied to the behaviour of individuals (both alone and collectively), and the possible changes to the statutory and legislative whistleblowing framework on the horizon, organisations must revisit their governance frameworks around conduct issues. This will remain a high priority issue for the C-suite, with regulator activity, particularly with respect to psychosocial hazards and sexual harassment, on the increase. 

Last year, there appeared to be an increase in the number of individual claims, particularly unfair dismissal and general protections claims, with which our lawyers were asked to assist. This seems to be consistent with Fair Work Commission (‘FWC’) data showing that unfair dismissals were (still) the most common type of claim made in 2023-24, making up 37% of total claims made, with general protections claims making up 14%. 

The reasons for the volume of individual claims are less clear; although there is speculation that economic (or “cost of living”) pressures could be playing a role. However, what does seem apparent is that the visibility of high-profile individual claims in recent years, coupled with ongoing discourse regarding both the Respect@Work and Closing Loopholes legislative reforms, seem to have re-established more broadly the industrial rights of the individual. 

With this trend in mind, employers will be well advised to revisit their approach to internal investigations, highlighted by some recent decisions from the FWC. In one such case, the FWC determined that, despite the conclusions of an investigation, bullying allegations against an employee were not, in fact substantiated at all and that the employer had no valid reason to dismiss. In that case, the FWC commented that the employer “appeared to believe that the sheer number of allegations presented a persuasive case of guilt.” 

Aside from ensuring investigations are conducted fairly, and with sufficient evidence collected and appropriately tested and weighed, it’s also critical to recognise the collateral risks of workplace investigations and to assess how those risks must also be managed. This includes for example, the risk of re-traumatisation. 

Regulators will continue to have a strong presence in 2025, noting the Fair Work Ombudsman (‘FWO’) announced that it recovered AUD 473 million in underpayments in 2023-2024. According to its media statement, this is the third highest annual figure recorded. As the FWO has previously indicated, vulnerable migrant workers, visa holders, and the large corporate sector (which represented AUD 333 million of the recovered underpayments) will continue to remain a focus for the regulator. 

This is particularly so as the new criminal “wage theft” provisions took effect on 1 January 2025, following the release of the Voluntary Small Business Wage Compliance Code in December 2024. With the potential of criminal sanctions for intentional underpayments and significantly increased penalties for underpayments generally, compliance with industrial instruments must remain a top priority for all organisations in 2025. 

Last year we saw the introduction of the highly controversial right to disconnect. While the right to disconnect quickly became the subject of significant media coverage and debate, the full impact of the new laws is yet to be seen. The FWC’s new jurisdiction to deal with disputes relating to the right to disconnect will continue to be an area to watch for employers in 2025. We also expect to see further developments in the federal courts as applicants rely on the exercise of the right to disconnect in general protections applications. 

The other area of focus for employers in 2024 was compliance with the introduction of further Workplace Gender Equality Agency (‘WGEA’) reforms and the herald of its new private and public sector gender pay gap data publishing requirements. 

On 20 November 2024, WGEA’s Gender Equality Scorecard 2023-24 was published, which highlighted the observable shift in employer focus and public attention on the issue of gender equality. The report suggests that the anticipated publication of employer gender pay gap data has had a motivational effect, with the median gender pay gap decreasing slightly by 0.6 percentage points between 2022-23 and 2023-24. 

The report also highlights further areas of continued focus, including gender segregation of industries, seniority of appointments (particularly at the board level), prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, and employment conditions relating to family and caring responsibilities. 

On 4 March 2025, WGEA published results of the 2023-24 private sector employer gender pay gap reporting on its website together with its Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report.   

Based on data submitted to WGEA during the reporting period, the 2023-2024 total remuneration average gender pay gap (which includes overtime, bonuses and additional payments) for private sector employers is currently 21.8% (with the median gender pay gap standing at 19%). Whilst the data shows that a large majority of employers still have a gender pay gap outside the target range (+/- 5%), it appears that more than half of employers have managed to reduce their gender pay gap in the last year alone. The report also highlights close to three quarters (68%) conducted a gender pay gap analysis on their results during the 2023-2024 period to better identify key drivers of gender pay gaps within their organisations.  

Employees have always had the right to request flexible work arrangements under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (‘FW Act’). However, changes to the flexible workplace arrangement regime came into effect in June 2023, which not only expanded employees’ rights to make such requests, but also opened the door to refusals being the subject of arbitration in the FWC. 

Following those changes, in 2024 we started to see a steady stream of flexible working arrangement disputes filed in the FWC. So far, the FWC’s approach to determining these disputes has been finely balanced and notably, one case even acknowledged the importance of face-to-face interactions and attendance at the workplace in refusing a working-from-home request in which the employee sought to work 100% of his five-days working week from home. 

People managers and supervisors should be trained to ensure they recognise what a flexible work arrangement request is, and the importance of genuinely considering and consulting with an employee on the request before implementing a decision. 

Given the FWC now has powers to arbitrate a decision to refuse a flexible working arrangement, businesses should review what systems and process they have in place for receiving, reviewing and determining any such request, and ensure that in doing so, they balance the needs of each of the parties. 

Finally, 2024 was a year where it could be said that we saw more new compliance requirements than ever before, with the introduction of new powers for the FWC to set minimum conditions for workers who are not employees at all. 

The new concept of a regulated worker captures particular independent contractors working in road transport and through digital platforms who work in a manner that is “employee-like”. 

The Transport Workers Union was quick off the mark to make applications to the FWC for the making of Minimum Standards Orders. However, the run to making Minimum Standards Orders hit a quick stop, with the FWC expressing its commitment to consulting heavily on the process for making the Minimum Standards Orders, and making orders for the Road Transport Advisory Group to provide advice about how it proposes to conduct itself and undertake consultation for its advice to the FWC to support this process. 

In the meantime, the Minister for Workplace Relations has made the Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code and the Road Transport Industry Termination Code (the ‘Codes’) which both commenced on 25 February 2025 to codify the disciplinary processes that must be followed to ensure the fair deactivation of digital labour platform workers, and the fair termination of owner-drivers and other independent transport workers. 

While observers might have anticipated that the Codes might have taken inspiration from the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code (which applies in respect of the dismissal of employees of small businesses), the Codes go considerably further and require particular warning and appeal processes to be followed, before a deactivation or dismissal may be considered fair. 

With employee-like workers having gained access to unfair deactivation and termination processes from 26 February 2025, it will remain to be seen how the FWC exercises its discretion in respect of the application of the Codes to perform its functions in a sensible manner, which appropriately balances the desire for procedural fairness with a need to maintain the integrity of independent contracting arrangements. 

With the reforms that have already taken place in 2024 and the issues we see staying squarely in focus for employers in 2025 (and beyond), it will be critical for organisations to undertake a fresh look at their workplace policies and training offerings to ensure they align with new legislative and regulatory requirements. Specific points of action can be summarised as follows:  

• Be prepared for increased scrutiny on corporate culture matters, and a potential increase in workplace conflicts;  

• Organisations must revisit their governance frameworks around conduct issues to stay ahead of potential regulatory changes to whistleblower protection; 

• Employers should ensure fair and thorough internal investigations to mitigate risks and avoid unjust dismissals. It’s also critical to recognise the collateral risks of workplace investigations and to assess how those risks must also be managed;  

• Compliance with wage theft rules is crucial to avoid significant penalties and criminal sanctions; 

• Employers should monitor developments on the right to disconnect and ensure compliance with the new rules; and 

• Employers must review and update their processes for handling flexible work requests to balance the needs of all parties. Training should also be implemented for people managers and supervisors.  

Please note, the following article is an extract from our Australian firm’s publication, the Kingston Reid Review: Your Guide to 2025. The full link to this publication can be found here.