“This has thrown up many employment law issues to deal with, including the ability of employers to stand down employees, how employers can change employees’ terms and conditions of employment like remuneration and hours of work, the obligations to consult with employees and unions about major workplace changes, the management of leave balances and dealing with the safety issues that arise including the quarantining of staff and how they should be remunerated during such periods,” he outlined.

“We are playing a critical role in helping our [clients develop] strategies to survive and outlast the virus and also ensure that they strike the right balance between their commercial interests and those of their employees.”

It has resulted, Mr Sant mused, in the “most intellectually stimulating period of work in nearly 30 years of practice”.

Identifying the shipping industry – a key sector for HFW’s business – as an example of such stimulating work, he said that shipping faces similar challenges to other sectors in terms of downturns and having to manage quarantine issues with staff.

“There has been a very substantial reduction in the requirement for supply services associated with the cruise industry, in particular suppliers of fuel for which the cruise sector is a major source of business in Australia,” he explained.

“Similarly, there has been a substantial reduction in the number of container liner and bulk vessels calling at Australian ports with vessel operators laying up ships and/or engaging in slow steaming in order to reduce operating costs.”

In addition, Mr Sant continued, there has been a general drop-off in the volume of domestic coastal cargo being shipped.

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“The reduction of capacity in the container liner sector is likely to result in delays and limited sailing options for export cargo as demand starts to increase with the Chinese ports reopening and China coming back on line generally,” he said.

“There have been incidents of stevedoring labour refusing to service vessels that have arrived from China or are otherwise alleged to present a COVID-19 risk notwithstanding that the vessels have satisfied Australian quarantine requirements. Separately, quarantine requirements have resulted in vessels being delayed.”

When asked about steps that employment lawyers should be taking at this juncture to respond to idiosyncratic hurdles in their daily practice, Mr Sant said: “Given that the circumstances confronting our clients are unprecedented, many of the questions we are being asked by clients are novel, and complex, and need to be answered very quickly.”

“This is coupled with constant changes to employment-related legislation, modern awards and the introduction of the JobKeeper Scheme. All of this can be very stressful if you are working alone,” he noted.

Looking ahead, Mr Sant proclaimed that there are currently “heaps of opportunities” for employment lawyers.

“We have never been more important to our clients as we are today,” he recounted.

“Clients need us to help devise the optimal strategies to not only manage through the COVID-19 crisis but to help them ramp up their businesses again as the crisis passes, as it will do. In the case of the shipping sector, businesses are likely to need to undergo significant restructuring, which will be challenging given the onerous terms and conditions of employment and strong union influence in their workplaces. 

“This may prove an obstacle to implementing the enhanced flexibility required to respond to the current challenges the sector is facing. We are also expecting further reforms in the industrial relations space, with the government foreshadowing the need to liberalise the current system so that employers and employees can operate in a more agile manner as they work their way through the crisis and ramp up their operations.

“We may well be on the cusp of a step change to our industrial relations system, which will generate a whole host of new work for practitioners.”