Employment relations and HRM

Andrew commenced his industrial relations career in the Brisbane City Council - an organisation at that time spanning two industrial jurisdictions (Federal and State) - with 7500 employees, 32 industrial awards and agreements and 22 unions representing employees. His major achievements in Council included developing the organisational response to Award Restructuring and commencing the pre-cursor strategies to enterprise bargaining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1992 Andrew moved to work in industrial relations within the Queensland public sector and was a Principal Industrial Officer in the Representation Branch of the Department of Employment, Vocational Education Training and Industrial Relations where he was initially engaged in assisting in the development of the Government's strategy for the implementation of enterprise bargaining. After a short time, he was seconded to work as a Policy Co-ordination and Parliamentary Liaison Officer with the Director General of that department, also fulfilling the role as Cabinet Legislation and Liaison Officer and overseeing the department's interface with the Ministerial and Cabinet processes. During that time Andrew co-ordinated the department and divisional strategic and operational planning processes and was the Secretary of the department's Budget Committee. In 1993 and 1996, Andrew was asked to undertake the role of Manager Policy, Division of Workplace Health and Safety and in that later period also oversaw the secretariat and intergovernmental committees that serviced the Workplace Health and Safety Council.

Andrew was appointed as a Manager in the Public Sector Consultancy Branch (the State Government's central industrial relations agency) in 1994, where he led a team of industrial relations professionals managing government's response to 'federal award incursion' that included the High Court cases Re SPSF and Re AEU. In that time Andrew participated in various reviews of key public service awards and legislation and provided consultancy services to statutory bodies and departments of government.  In addition, Andrew oversaw the work of the Information Systems team that was responsible for whole of government analysis of industrial relations workforce data. 

  

 

In 2001, Andrew commenced work at Freehills in Brisbane, where he was engaged as a Consultant, then Counsel - Employee Relations, with a particular emphasis on workplace health and safety.  Much of this work involved front-end advice and defense against prosecutions under state based OHS laws.  

Andrew commenced work as a Barrister at Inns of Court, Brisbane in July 2004 and has remained working at the private bar at various locations since that time. His work has been wide ranging and is a combination of consultancy, representation and training activities. 

Between 2011 and 2020 Andrew was also engaged as a Resident Magistrate in the Republic of Fiji, where he sat on the Employment Relations Tribunal. Andrew has participated in the International Labour Standards Academy in Turin, Italy (2018) and the Asia Pacific Academy (2022).

Andrew is available to provide advice, representation, or 'hands on' assistance in all aspects of employee/industrial relations and human resource management. 

 

 
 
RELEVANT WORKPLACE RELATIONS SITES :

  • Fair Work Commission - www.fwc.gov.au
  • Fairwork Ombudsman - www.fairwork.gov.au
  • AUSTLII—www.austlii.edu.au
    A legal site including legislation, treaties and decisions of courts and tribunals.
  • Federal Register of Legislation—www.legislation.gov.au
    Legislative repository that has replaced SCALEplus, containing Commonwealth primary legislation as well as other ancillary documents and information, and the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.
  • Federal Court of Australia—www.fedcourt.gov.au
  • Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia—http://www.fcfcoa.gov.au 
  • High Court of Australia—www.hcourt.gov.au
  • International Labour Organization—www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm
    Provides technical assistance primarily in the fields of vocational training and vocational rehabilitation, employment policy, labour administration, labour law and industrial relations, working conditions, management development, co-operatives, social security, labour statistics and occupational health and safety.
  • Paclii - www.paclii.org  (Pacific Islands Legal Information)
  • Queensland Industrial Relations Commission—www.qirc.qld.gov.au