Current practice
John is a partner in the employee relations practice.
John has extensive experience in all aspects of industrial relations and employment law primarily in representing companies in proceedings before courts and tribunals in employment, industrial, equal opportunity and occupational health and safety matters.
A major focus of John's practice today is on developing strategies for companies to deal with issues of engagement, remuneration and termination. With the ever increasing tendency for employees to litigate, strategic preparation is becoming a vital part of a company's planning to minimise the risk of litigation. This work extends to executive and director level issues, Corporations Law implications and share options planning.
Industry experience
John has conducted the litigation arising in the major industrial disputes in Australia during the past 20 years including:
- Deregistration of the Builders Labourers' Federation
- Pilots Dispute
- Weipa Dispute
- Patricks Dispute
- Hamersley Dispute
- and many others including transport, building, mining, oil and manufacturing.
Strategic advice on the use of civil actions in industrial disputes, in conjunction with his colleagues practising in industrial tribunals, is a significant component of John's practice. He has been successful on numerous occasions in preventing public confrontation between employers and unions through the measured use of the civil remedies available to employers.
John is currently leading our team of lawyers advising on Building Industry Reform. He is acting for many employers in assisting them to implement the reforms.
Professional background
He has been a member of the Law Clerks' Board in Victoria and served on the advisory board to the Graduate Diploma in Labour Law at Melbourne University.
He is an associate of the Institute of Certified Practising Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a member of the Industrial Relations Society of Victoria and an Associate Member of the Australian Human Resources Institute.
John holds both a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Economics from Melbourne's Monash University and joined Freehills in 1977.
