IN BRIEF
There can be a number of particularly important reasons why
employers need to know whether an employee is working elsewhere and
also the nature of that work.
In a recent decision of the Fair Work Commission (Bril -v-
Rex Australia Limited), Vice President Hatcher found that the
implied duty of fidelity and good faith on the employee does not
extend to them disclosing to the employer what other secondary work
they are doing in their own time.
In this case, the employee took a week of annual leave to work
for a client as a driver. Notably, this was not the case of an
employee doing work for a competitor, nor was it the case where
there was a suspicion that confidential information would
necessarily be disclosed by that employee. Finally, there was no
evidence put to the FWC by the employer proving that - by the
employee working for a client for this week - it meant lost job
opportunity for the employee's primary employer.
