Alison McMaster

Alison is a Senior Associate in Lander & Rogers’ Workplace Relations & Safety practice. Admitted in 2018, Alison advises public and private sector clients on employment and industrial relations, work health and safety, discrimination and Commonwealth public law matters. She combines practical, commercially focused and timely advice with strong technical analysis, and has experience managing complex litigation at Territory, State and Federal levels.

Experience

Alison advises Commonwealth agencies, universities, not-for-profit organisations, companies and individuals across the full employment lifecycle.

Her experience includes conducting and advising on workplace investigations and public interest disclosures; advising on enterprise agreement and award interpretation, workplace disputes, discrimination claims and employment-related litigation; and drafting and reviewing employment contracts, independent contractor and labour hire arrangements, policies, procedures and settlement documents.

Her key areas of expertise include:

• employment law and industrial relations
• workplace investigations, misconduct and public interest disclosures
• work health and safety compliance and risk management
• discrimination, bullying and harassment
• employment, administrative and public sector litigation

Career highlights

Alison’s representative experience includes:

• advising Commonwealth agencies on Code of Conduct and misconduct investigations under the Public Service Act 1999 (Cth)
• conducting and advising on public interest disclosure investigations under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) for a range of Commonwealth agencies
• advising Commonwealth departments on work health and safety obligations, including preparing contractual frameworks, guidelines, checklists and process maps
• acting for Commonwealth agencies and Comcover in discrimination, general protections and unfair dismissal matters at all stages of a dispute
• advising a large Canberra-based not-for-profit on organisational restructuring, transition from an enterprise agreement to the relevant award, redundancies and a suite of employment contracts
• advising senior employees on breach of contract, restraint of trade and negotiated exit matters
• acting in tribunal and court proceedings, including Administrative Appeals Tribunal matters and proceedings before the Fair Work Commission, Australian Human Rights Commission, ACT Supreme Court and Federal Court of Australia