Mental Illness in the Workplace

DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know that one in five (5) Australian adults experience some form of mental illness every year? This serious illness has increased over the past 5 years, which now have seen around 45% of Australians aged between sixteen (16) and eight-five (85) experiencing a mental illness at some point in their life. As we all know, unfortunately, mental illness or any form of illness doesn’t just stop at home. You live majority of your life at work and thus wherever you go your illness may shadow.

As an employee, you may develop a mental illness prior to your employment or during your current employment and without a good support system and ongoing work strategies you may be in a worse off position. As an employee, you need to know your rights and privileges at a workplace if it is affecting your day-to-day life. You deserve a workplace that ensures a safe and healthy environment.

EMPLOYERS AND MANAGEMENT ROLES

All employers and management roles require appropriate steps to be taken to minimise and eliminate any form of illness whether that be mental or physical that is impacting an employee. Employers and management staff are obliged to create and identify possible work practices, actions or incident procedures which may eliminate mental illness of their employees.

There are many reasons why an employer should help improve and support an employee’s physical and mental concerns, namely; because a safe and healthy workplace is good for business, it improves productivity thus increasing revenue but most importantly it’s because it’s the LAW.

An employer has a number of legal obligations in relation to the management of mental illness in the workplace; ensuring that Occupational Health & Safety is met, avoiding discrimination within the workplace both with employer-employee relations as well as employee-employee relationships and ensuring privacy has been kept between the employer and employee.

MENTAL ILLNESS AT WORK

The employer must provide, ‘reasonable accommodation’ to assist an employee to properly perform their duties whether that employee is physically or mentally disabled. Unfortunately, for an employer, supporting and facilitating a mental illness is of greater difficulty to suppress and support than that of a physical injury/disability. For example, an employer can support one of their staff members by enabling wheelchair access and assessable workspaces for a person of physical illness however, supporting an employee with a mental illness comes with greater challenges.

The Courts have focused on what is ‘reasonable’. The Court will require employers to go to all lengths to enable employees with mental illness to keep working but on the other hand an employer mustn’t go to such accommodation that is too much of an offset for an employer’s revenue and expenses.

In the principal case of Ambulance Victoria v M, [2012] the Full Bench determined that an employer cannot dismiss an employee or not reinstate an employee due to a lack of confidence in the employee’s ability to sustain and maintain good employment with a mental illness. There must be a reasonable based judgment in coming to this decision, momentary figures for example.

Article Source: Mental Illness 

Top Reasons Why You Should Setup a Company

When you go into business, you have the option of either being a sole trader or entering into a business partnership. There is also the option of starting up a company, and in this post, we’ll look at a couple of key advantages as to why setup a company might be the best idea.

What Exactly Is Setup a Company?

When you start a company, it’s a legal entity all on its own, separate from the individuals running the company. With a business, you are the business. With a company, the company is the business.

Companies can also own property, and companies can also be sued, just like a person.

Public companies are listed on the stock exchange and are made up of individual public shareholders. Private companies don’t distribute shares to the general public and cannot raise funds through share offerings.

Smaller businesses tend to operate as private companies.

So Why Establish a Company?

There are many reasons why you might decide to go the company route over being a sole trader or partnership. Let’s look at some of the top reasons and advantages.

Payless Tax – This is one of the most attractive qualities a company has to offer. Who doesn’t get excited over the prospect of paying less tax? Overall the tax rate will work out lower than if you were running a regular business. The company tax rate is set at 30% on profits, so when you receive dividends, you will often receive tax credits.

Limited Liability – Also a huge advantage when running a company. In a nutshell, this means that individual shareholders are not liable for the companies debts in most instances, and therefore cannot have their personal assets seized in order to cover those debts.

More Control – Those who own the business are the shareholders in the company, whereas those you appoint as the managers and directors of the business are separate from the company’s shareholders, and therefore don’t own a part of the company.

Company Jurisdiction – Once your company has been registered in one Australian state, provided your company number appears on all paperwork, you are free to conduct business all across the nation.

Need Help Starting a Company?

Have a chat with your local legal representative who fully understands the advantages of setting up a company and the processes involved. In Brisbane, your team of experienced professionals is Aylward Game Solicitors.

Article Source: Why You Should Setup a Company