Over the last two weeks, the firm’s workplace advisory and tax teams co-presented a special briefing for clients on effective strategies for engaging, retaining and rewarding employees. The session was delivered in both our Melbourne and Sydney office and provoked plenty of questions from participants.
Employment and workplace advisory partner Rachel Soh (effective 1 July 2024) and senior associate Anna Sapountsis provided focused insights into major workplace law reforms, drawing on their recent experiences navigating the changes with our clients, and outlining practical measures to help prepare and manage the new obligations.
Rachel explored the controversial new right to disconnect and shared her predictions on how this is likely to play out, including the potential to be utilised by employees at various friction points in the employment relationship (i.e. disciplinary action, performance feedback or even termination of employment). She unpacked upcoming changes to the way independent contractors and casual employees are assessed and engaged, and how businesses can adapt to the more complex legal tests.
Anna took participants through key legislation around the ways employees are remunerated, including the new labour hire ‘same job, same pay’ reforms. She discussed how these are already changing the industrial relations landscape in Australia and shared some very pertinent updates on union test cases currently underway in the Fair Work Commission. Both Anna and Rachel explored the possibilities of further foreshadowed expansion of the workplace laws in future.
After a short networking breakfast break, tax partner Shaun Cartoon and lawyer Eileen Liu continued the briefing with an engaging update on hot topics and current trends in employee share schemes (ESS) and employment taxes.
Shaun gave an engaging presentation on the most efficient ways to structure equity incentives. He reminded the audience that even where a company is unable to make an offer of start-up qualifying options, there are many alternatives available, including loan funded share plans, premium priced option plans and tax deferred options each of which will yield different outcomes for the issuing company and for the participant. Shaun also provided an update on developments in payroll tax and superannuation.
Closing out the briefing, Eileen reflected on the impact the employee share schemes regulatory regime has had since it took effect in October 2022. Amongst corporate issuers, she observed a trend away from offering options with exercise prices and towards share appreciation rights and performance rights.
After a short networking breakfast break, tax partner Shaun Cartoon and lawyer Eileen Liu continued the briefing with an engaging update on hot topics and current trends in employee share schemes (ESS) and employment taxes.
Shaun gave an engaging presentation on the most efficient ways to structure equity incentives. He reminded the audience that even where a company is unable to make an offer of start-up qualifying options, there are many alternatives available, including loan funded share plans, premium priced option plans and tax deferred options each of which will yield different outcomes for the issuing company and for the participant. Shaun also provided an update on developments in payroll tax and superannuation.
Closing out the briefing, Eileen reflected on the impact the employee share schemes regulatory regime has had since it took effect in October 2022. Amongst corporate issuers, she observed a trend away from offering options with exercise prices and towards share appreciation rights and performance rights.
