Employment Law Update: The 2026 Decisions Shaping Practice

Recent employment decisions and developments provide practical guidance on parental leave, third-party harassment, political expression, unexplained absences and working from home. These 2026 developments highlight the importance of properly documenting decisions, identifying the correct legal pathway and understanding when employers may be responsible for conduct by customers, contractors or other third parties. This seminar will focus on the practical lessons from these decisions and developments, and the steps employment lawyers can advise clients to take when similar issues arise.

This seminar will discuss how the courts and commission are dealing with:

• Extended unpaid parental leave: Reasonable business grounds, specialist work and evidence of operational impact.
• Third-party sexual harassment: Customer and contractor liability, s 527D remedies and site-control measures.
• Harassment prevention systems: Policy limits, training failures and evidence of reasonable steps.
• Psychosocial risks and management conduct: Leadership style, performance management and intervention threshold.
• Workplace rights and political expression: Contractor engagement, state discrimination laws and limits on adverse action claims.
• Unexplained absence and dismissal: Abandonment assertions, repudiation and defensible contact processes.
• Working from home: Clerks Award request mechanisms, agreed arrangements and return-to-office policies.
• Other recent cases of significance
• Update on Victorian WFH rights: Proposed statutory entitlement, reasonable costs and VEOHRC/VCAT disputes.