Practical ER/IR clarity for real HR decisions
ER/IR Unpacked is AHRI’s podcast for HR professionals navigating the realities of employment and industrial relations. Each episode cuts through complex legislation and workplace issues to focus on what it means in practice, with expert insights, plain-language discussion and real scenarios submitted by AHRI members. Designed for busy HR professionals, it delivers practical context to help you make confident decisions without the legal jargon.
Episode 8
When is HR personally liable? with Joydeep Hor
With strict criminal wage theft provisions in effect, coupled with a regulatory crackdown on psychosocial health and safety, HR is operating under closer legal scrutiny than ever before.
Host Jonathon Woolfrey FCPHR is joined by employment lawyer Joydeep Hor to unpack HR’s personal liability. Together, they outline some of the details HR practitioners need to protect themselves and spot potential compliance blind spots early.
Episode 7
HR's ER/IR questions answered (part two)
Imagine having a team of employment lawyers on hand to ask your most pressing industrial and employment relations questions. What would you ask?
In part two of this special live recording from AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in Brisbane, host Jonathon Woolfrey FCPHR continues the conversation with a panel of legal experts to get answers to some of HR’s complex industrial and employment relations questions.
Episode 6
HR's ER/IR questions answered (part one)
In this special live episode, recorded at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in Brisbane, host Jonathon Woolfrey FCPHR sat down with a panel of legal experts to talk through the day-to-day challenges employers are facing in today’s complex ER/IR landscape.
He posed audience questions to Kathryn Dent, Partner at HWLE Lawyers; Will Snow, Director of Snow Legal; and Lisa Mannering FCPHR, employment lawyer and HR consultant at Langtree Legal.
Bringing their on-the-ground insights, they unpacked the most pressing issues employers are grappling with – from managing overpayments to conducting psychosocially safe difficult conversations in the workplace.
Episode 5
Managing safety risk during redundancy, redeployment and restructuring
Cutting headcount is one of the toughest calls HR has to make. And today, it’s more complicated than ever.
Restructures, redundancies and redeployments come with enough challenges on their own. Add psychosocial safety risks into the mix, and the room for error expands quickly. So how can HR get it right?
Host Jonathon Woolfrey FCPHR sits down with Kathryn Dent, Partner at HWLE Lawyers, to break down what every HR practitioner needs to keep front-of-mind – not just during and after a restructure, but in the lead-up too.
Episode 4
How can you maintain psychosocial safety in performance management?
Performance management season is here. Is fear stopping your leaders from having hard, but necessary, conversations?
In this episode of ER/IR Unpacked, we strip away the stress to explore how to effectively navigate performance reviews through a psychosocial safety lens.
Jonathon Woolfrey FCPHR goes deep with Kate Connors, Chief Mental Health Advisor and executive coach at Elemental Coaching and Psychology. Kate shares proactive strategies to ease manager anxiety, the behavioral balance of high-quality workplace check-ins and how to co-design performance solutions rather than strictly relying on scripted procedures.
Episode 3
What does HR need to know about the NES review?
Australia’s National Employment Standards are getting their first major comprehensive parliamentary review since being implemented in 2009. Employment lawyer Lisa Mannering FCPHR joins host Jonathon Woolfrey FCPHR to dissect the highest-stakes items on the table, ranging from the fiercely debated push for five weeks of annual leave to the logistical headaches of casual notice periods and the campaign to force AI into mandatory consultation clauses.
Episode 2
Is your business on track to meet WGEA's new goal-setting targets?
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s new gender goal setting requirements are now in full effect. Is your business on track to meet the new requirements?
In this episode of ER/IR Unpacked, we tackle the strategic reality of gender reporting and target setting in the workplace. Dr Samone McCurdy, Executive Manager, Insights and Capability at WGEA, unpacks the latest legislative reforms, discusses the new ‘menu’ of targets for large employers and explores how HR can use this data to influence strategy with the C-suite.
Plus, we answer listeners’ burning questions – from the consequences of missing a target to managing baselines during a major company restructure.
Episode 1
Is AI creating a legal liability in your organisation?
AI is moving faster than the law – is your business keeping up? In this inaugural episode of AHRI’s ER/IR Unpacked, we strip away the hype to tackle the complexity and ambiguity of AI in the Australian workplace.
This episode starts with a quick ER/IR landscape update (2:14 mins) from Amal Cimino CPHR, HR Standards and Capability Development Manager at AHRI, before we go deep with Natalie Gaspar, Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills (9:00 mins), discussing recent NSW legislation that could impact broader states and territories and whether we should expect specific AI legal obligations on the horizon.
Plus, we tackle the grey areas HR leaders actually face by answering listener questions that keep HR up at night (25:56 mins).
