Christian is an experienced industrial relations and employment advisor and litigator. He acts for employers in the private and public sectors in a broad range of industries including emergency services, education, retail and energy & resources. Christian is known for his strategic and commercial approach to risk-mitigation and his practicality in respect of dispute resolution.
Experience
Christian assists employers with their employment, workplace structuring and industrial relations problems. His assistance is particularly sought in relation to enterprise bargaining, responses to industrial action and transfer of business. He acts for clients in complex and highly unionised environments and highly regulated industries.
Christian has broad litigious experience in various Federal and State courts and tribunals. He regularly appears in the Fair Work Commission and the various equal opportunity commissions and tribunals.
Christian was named as a 'Rising Star' in Employment & WHS in the 2016 and 2017 edition of Doyle's Guide.
Career highlights
Christian's experience includes:
- successfully defending the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority, at first instance and appeal, in a large industrial dispute brought by the United Firefighters' Union
- acting for the Australian Energy Market Operator in its 2018 enterprise bargaining negotiations
- advising genU in respect of the transfer of business implications of the acquisition of Northern Support Services and the subsequent transfer of its workforce
- acting for La Trobe University in litigation brought by independent contractors seeking declarations that they were employees entitled to employment-related entitlements
- successfully applying to the Fair Work Commission for orders terminating five enterprise agreements applying to United Energy & Multinet Gas
- appearing for Australian Paper at the Fair Work Commission in contested industrial disputes brought pursuant to a dispute resolution procedure in an enterprise agreement
- conducting a number of sensitive workplace investigations of senior government employees.