Legal Services
Our Legal Services – representing your interests
Policies, procedures and practices
Modern Awards, work
environment, accreditation
COVID-19 legal
advice
Award, award free
and EA contracts
General contract advice and interpretation, minor disputes
Investigation, analysis, reporting and guidance
Issue identification,
strategy, guidance
Representing your organisation in a court of law
Plans, process and entitlements
Offering you assurance and additional protection through timely, expert legal advice
Whether its advice on what should or shouldn’t be included in a legally binding document or needing representation when things go wrong, CER is here to help.
Workplace issues can often be resolved in a few simple steps but sometimes, despite your best efforts a situation can escalate and needs legal intervention.
CER can help you with a matter from start to finish, from simple Employment Relations advice, all the way through to Mediation, Investigation and complex Legal Advice. We can also provide representation on your behalf in a court of law.
Why CER?
End-to-end service
At CER we offer a full suite of Employment Relations, Training and Legal Services, which means we can work with you when issues arise, but also help you develop your teams capabilities through our ongoing services.
Affordable advice with Catholic knowledge
As the recommended provider of workplace advice for Catholic organisations, we are dedicated to ensuring you receive quality advice, guided by Catholic social thought, at an affordable price.
We know that issues arising may be the pinnacle of other underlying organisational issues. We can work with you to conduct a CER Review to help identify why these issues may be occurring. We then provide an attainable action plan and support you to help resolve the underlying cause.
CER Review
Audits
As an employer it is important that you stay up to date with regulatory amendments to contracts of employment, workplace policies and practices, and employees’ remuneration. How recently have you reviewed your performance evaluation practices or recruitment and termination processes? It is vital that these remain relevant and compliant with workplace laws and instruments. CER offers workplace audits to help you identify areas of improvement and compliance issues within your organisation and helps you to adopt best practice.
Claims, Complaints and Disputes
There are many claims an employee can make against an employer, including bullying, unfair dismissal, adverse action, discrimination, unpaid entitlements and workers compensation, to name a few. Each claim presents its own challenges and potential difficulties. CER provides assistance and representation for workplace claims made against your organisation. CER’s experienced specialists and lawyers can provide advice through to representation, including appearing before courts and tribunals on your organisations behalf. We can also negotiate with employees and their representatives to ensure an agreeable outcome, avoiding the difficulties associated with prolonged litigation.
Compliance
Employers face compliance challenges across a range of areas. These challenges can include complying with, privacy policies, modern awards and enterprise agreements, providing a safe work environment and ensuring employees maintain appropriate accreditation and clearances such as NESA. It is also important that you adopt fair and transparent procedures when dealing with performance and conduct issues, or termination of employment. CER can assist you through workplace audits to review contracts of employment and policies, and work with you to manage workplace disputes, performance and conduct issues, and terminations.
COVID-19 Advice
We can help you stay up to date with all matters relating to COVID-19, including Public Health Orders, medical exemptions and contraindication certificates, NSW Government legislation, guidelines, and general advice. We're also here to help you manage your ill employees, assess their leave entitlements, and consider special leave requests. Get in touch for personalised advice and check out our COVID-19 resources and latest updates.
Employment Contracts
Employee or independent contractor agreements need to cover significant detail to ensure that the relationship between parties is properly documented, and on terms that both parties understand and agree to. It is important that contracts of employment don’t conflict with, or contravene modern awards or enterprise agreements, if employees are covered by either. We offer a suite of contract templates – specifically drafted award free, award covered, and enterprise agreement covered employees. We can also review and interpret your contracts of employment or independent contractor agreements. We also provide advice on contract disputes, or variations resulting from flexible work requests and leave entitlements.
General Legal
As a business owner you will come across a variety of issues that may require legal advice and direction. The CER team of legal practitioners is well placed to assist you with all of your general commercial needs and issues. We cover general contract advice and minor disputes. We can help you navigate what to do when you receive a subpoena, or need to create, review or dispute a third party agreement. Your CER team are here to guide you through the more difficult processes or issues your organisation may face, so you can be assured that you have crossed the t’s and dotted the I’s on your matter.
Investigations
Allegations made against employees, such as discrimination, bullying, or breach of policies, are serious matters. As an employer you have an obligation to ensure allegations are properly investigated. CER have skilled investigators who analyse allegations, interview complainants and witnesses and provide detailed reports on the matter. Our investigators ensure that the employee accused of the allegations are provided with procedural fairness and are fully aware of, and able to respond to, the allegations against them. We can also provide assistance and guidance to organisations undertaking internal investigations.
Mediations
Conflict between employees in the workplace can be disruptive for your organisation. They can also lead to legal disputes which can cause significant costs. If left unaddressed, conflicts can lead to unhappy and unsatisfied employees, loss of productivity and claims of bullying and harassment. Effective mediation in the workplace can identify the issues and provide sustainable strategies. At CER we have qualified mediators available to assist you in managing workplace disputes between employees.
Representation
There are multiple avenues for employees to deal with disputes that arise with their employers. Employees can lodge claims of discrimination with the Human Rights Commission or the Anti-Discrimination Board, and make may claims alleging unfair dismissal, adverse action or workplace disputes to the Fair Work Commission. Employees may also make claims for unpaid entitlements and breaches of workplace laws and instruments to Federal and State courts. CER has lawyers and employment relations specialists that are experienced in representing employers before courts and tribunals.
Terminations and Restructure
Managing the termination of employees can be a difficult process. Whether because of performance, conduct or redundancy, employers must ensure that termination procedures are fair. You must offer the terminated employee an opportunity to respond and, for redundancies, requirements in awards and enterprise agreements must be genuinely met. CER can provide you with assistance and guidance dealing with terminations, and the steps to take to ensure termination is appropriate, lawful, and fair. CER can also provide assistance and representation if a termination is disputed.
Contact our legal team today
Please note: CER offers legal assistance and advice on employment/industrial relations to Catholic employers. If you're an employee, please consult your HR department or direct supervisor for guidance.
Protecting your organisation through quality advice and representation
Latest updates
Employment
Relations
Legal
Services
Human
Resources
