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Responding to COVID-19:
These uncertain times can raise many questions for business owners and medical professionals.
We have collated some helpful resources for you during this time. You Legal is set up to provide our legal solutions remotely, we are not expecting an impact on our ability to provide services.
You Legal has been operating for over 6 years and from day one the majority of our services have been provided to our clients in this way - we are EXPERTS in remote working.
We will update this page with new information as the situation unfolds.
We are sharing this information to help our clients and the broader community
If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch
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What We Are Writing About:
How Can I Get Out of My Contract? Is My Contract Frustrated?
One of the most important parts of contract law is the mutual trust and confidence the parties place in each other to perform their promises to each other.
Having said all that, there are certain events, or ‘triggers’ that can lead to a contract becoming frustrated, which is often of no fault to either party.
How Can I Get Out of My Contract? What is Force Majeure?
A lot of people are asking me – how do I get out of my contract? The declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and the directives of governments are having effects on business that a few weeks ago we could have never imagined.
I personally have been in tears thinking about fellow business owners over the weekend and the difficult decisions that they are making in the face of this crisis.
SUMMARY OF EMPLOYER OBLIGATIONS:
Updated 23 March 2020
Employers have a duty of care to their employees to provide a high standard of safety and health to their workplaces.
It has been held that the contraction of an infectious disease (such as COVID-19) entering a worker's body in the course of his or her employment could constitute an injury (see Favelle Mort Ltd v Murray (1976) 133 CLR 580).
COVID-19 represents a potentially significant challenge for employers and they should take all reasonable steps to ensure that their staff and clients remain safe from harm while the outbreak remains a global pandemic.
Workplace Health and Safety obligations mean that employers have a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others at the workplace.
Individual workers also have a duty at work under WHS laws to exercise care for their own health and safety and not adversely affect the health and safety of others.
Meaning ANYONE who could be at risk of having COVID-19 should not be in the workplace and if you suspect someone has contracted it, they need to be sent home immediately. This includes staff who have returned from overseas travel and need to serve out the 14 day self-isolation period.
Managing Your Risk:
Employers must make a robust risk assessment to identify, assess and manage the risk of employees contracting COVID-19.
In terms of managing risk, employers must do anything that is reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety – this might be implementing options such as working from home, cancelling meetings, avoiding hand to hand touching, more regular cleaning etc.
As a business or employer, it’s also your role to ensure you remain up-to-date on latest developments that may impact your workplace.
Open communication to your employees is absolutely critical at this time.
You can read more about WHS implications here.
Contractual Obligations: Legal Impact.
A pandemic of this scale will have consequences for many business contracts. Both on the ability for businesses to deliver and receive agreed services or products.
It is too early to know right now how this will play out, so for now I encourage your business to carefully assess any contracts you are currently a party to, your ability to deliver on them and the impact this may have on your overall business.
If you have any contracts you are currently negotiating on or for future contracts, these may need re-assessing as this situation changes day by day. What might have been appropriate last month or even last week, may no longer be the case.