Here at the Employment Law Handbook, we have hit the ground running in 2026 to ensure we don't miss a beat when it comes to keeping our subscribers up to date with the latest developments in employment law.

You could be among those to have access to up-to-the-minute advice in our chapters, which are regularly updated to reflect legal changes and provide everything you need to meet your current obligations.

Since the start of the year, we have made updates to several chapters of the Handbook, with the biggest updates happening to six chapters:

1. Fair Work Ombudsman: This chapter now features new statistics showing the work the Fair Work Ombudsman has done over the past year and resources the Ombudsman provides to assist businesses with compliance.
2. Privacy and data protection: We have updated this chapter to reflect legal changes, including potential changes to be aware of.
3. Rostering: This chapter now includes information about rostering part-time employees and working outside rostered hours under modern awards, plus your obligations to manage psychosocial hazards when rostering.
4. Settlement and separation agreements: We have inserted more information about when a settlement agreement might be ruled invalid in this chapter.
5. Whistleblower protection: We have explained what detrimental conduct might contravene whistleblower protections in our update of this chapter.
6. Workplace surveillance: This chapter has been updated to include potential changes to Victorian surveillance laws, penalty rate changes and information about notice of surveillance in the Australian Capital Territory.

We have also been keeping abreast of the most important cases to come before the courts and are routinely inserting summaries of relevant cases into chapters to illustrate how the law is being applied in practice. For in-depth analysis of cases and the lessons to takeaway, subscribers can visit our dedicated Case Law page.

And we mustn't forget our popular Q&As. Topics so far this year range from paid leave entitlements to award classification.

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