Executive Committee
President and Chair
Michael Harmer, Harmers Workplace Lawyers
Michael became President of AIER in December 2009. He is the Chairman of Harmers Workplace Lawyers, a boutique law firm specialising in employment and workplace relations. Michael is a leading advocate for the promotion of positive workplace culture as a means to improve the health and well being of workers and the profitability of enterprises. Michael has implemented practices aligned to these expressed views, making Harmers one of Australia’s most successful boutique law firms.
Michael has over thirty years experience in industrial relations, providing legal and strategic advice in a number of major enterprise bargaining and change management initiatives. Michael is also recognised for his specialist advice concerning the employment of senior executives.
Michael has extensive advocacy and negotiation experience in relevant Federal and State Tribunals.
Vice Presidents
Fiona Hardie, Hardie Grant Publishing – Employer Representative
Fiona Hardie is co-owner of one of Australia’s largest independent publishers. She and her partner, Sandy Grant, established Hardie Grant Publishing in Melbourne in 1997. The company now has offices in Melbourne, Sydney and London; publishes hundreds of titles each year, in a range of media – books, magazines, and digital; and employs 150 staff. The publishing sector has a high proportion of female staff and Hardie Grant, like many publishers, has a high proportion of women in management, as well as flexible working arrangements. Over the past thirty years, Fiona has been involved with women’s, legal, publishing and workplace organisations, including setting up one of the earliest employer-based childcare centres in Melbourne.
Tim Kennedy, National Union of Workers – Union Representative
Tim Kennedy completed a B.A. (Hons) and a M.A. (International Relations) at Monash University, and a LLB (Hons) at Latrobe University.
He commenced working with the National Union of Workers as an Industrial Officer in 1995, and has subsequently worked as both an Organiser and Industrial Officer for both the National Office and Victorian Branch of the Union. During this time he was responsible for industrial advocacy in industrial tribunals, dealing with industrial disputes, unfair terminations and matters involving bargaining, organising and industrial action.
In 2003, Tim was elected to the office of Assistant National Secretary of the National Union of Workers, and in 2010 was elected to the office of Victorian Branch Secretary.
Tim also represents the Union as a Board Member of LUCRF Super, the NUW’s industry superannuation fund. He currently sits on both the Audit and Compliance Committee and Investment Committee of LUCRF Super. He also represents the Union as a Board Member of Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, the overseas foreign aid arm of the Australian Union Movement.
Tim is admitted to practice as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Treasurer
Mark Perica
Mark has been a labour lawyer within law firms, at the bar and in blue and white collar unions for twenty-five years. He holds Masters degrees in Law and in Industrial Relations and regularly appears in proceedings in the state and federal industrial and equal opportunity tribunals and in the Federal Court. He was an ACTU nominee on the Council on Industrial Legalisation, is a regular speaker at academic and union conferences, and has appeared in a number of significant and lengthy proceedings over his career.
Members
The Hon Paul Munro
Paul Munro served from 1986 to 2004 as Justice Munro, a senior presidential member of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (the AIRC) and its predecessors. He previously ran legal practices in Papua New Guinea, Melbourne and Sydney, was National Secretary of the Council of Australian Government Employee Organisations (1969 to 1977), a national public sector union official and had various senior roles in government and other organisations. He has been a member of the ACTU executive, of the Executive Public Service International and related committees, of the 1974-1976 Coombs Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration and later the Administrative Review Council. He is currently Patron of the Industrial Relations Society of New South Wales and a member of the Management Committee of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia.
Mark Irving, Victorian Bar
Mark Irving is a barrister specialising in industrial and anti-discrimination law. He was previously a judge’s associate, a solicitor at Maurice Blackburn Cashman and the national legal and industrial officer for the Health Services Union of Australia. He has lectured at various Victorian universities. A widely-published author and commentator, Mark wrote the first Australian book on collective bargaining, Enterprise Bargaining and the Law. For the past fifteen years he has been the Victorian editor of the Australian Labour Law Reporter, the most comprehensive guide to Australian industrial and employment law.
Gary Rothville, Gary Rothville and Associates
Gary Rothville operates a private legal practice, Gary Rothville and Associates, and an advisory consultancy company, Garjen Pty Ltd. He has more than thirty years experience in the field of human resources (HR) and industrial relations (IR), both in business and in legal practice. His expertise covers extensive strategic IR and HR planning and IR generally, including very practical experience in resolving a broad range of industrial disputes, developing enterprise and industrial agreements, assisting in all manner of HR issues and conducting HR due diligence reviews in relation to merger and acquisition activities. Gary has acted for major employers and employer associations in both federal and state jurisdictions. He is also an accredited and experienced mediator, with a particular interest in dispute resolution and conducts Grievance Review Hearings for Victorian Government Departments and Agencies. He chairs the VicRoads Industrial Appeals Committee.
Gary was previously the head of Arnold Bloch Leibler’s employment and industrial relations practice, where he joined as partner in 2002. He was formerly a partner at Anderson Legal, where he headed its national IR and employment services group for five years and led the practice in the South-East Asian region. Gary is also the former head of the national employment and IR practice at Phillips Fox, which he established. Prior to entering legal practice, Gary spent more than twelve years at the national headquarters of Telstra, at a time when it was Australia’s largest employer with some 90,000 employees.
Sean Reidy
Sean Reidy is a solicitor and barrister working in Queensland. He was formerly a partner with the Queensland law firm Carne Reidy Herd. He is a member of the Queensland Law Society’s Industrial Law Committee and practised in employment law and industrial relations for twenty-five years.
Joel Fetter
Joel Fetter is Director of the Policy & Industrial team at the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The team is responsible for the ACTU’s legal and industrial work, including running test cases, policy development, lobbying and public advocacy. Joel holds LLM, LLB and BA degrees.
Tim McCauley
To come
Advisory Committee & Charter Panel of Experts
Professor Joellen Riley, Sydney University
Professor Greg Bamber, Monash University
Carol Andrades, Ryan Carlisle Thomas
Professor Anthony Forsyth, Monash University
Associate Professor Colin Fenwick, Melbourne University (and now ILO)
Professor Marilyn Pittard, Monash University
Professor David Peetz, Griffith University
Professor Barbara Pocock, Centre of Work and Life at the University of Adelaide
Justice Paul Munro, former Presidential Member of the AIRC
Professor Ron McCallum AO, Sydney Law School
David Chin, NSW Bar
Professor Russell Lansbury, University of Sydney
Emeritus Professor John Nevile, UNSW
Associate Professor Peter Kriesler, UNSW
Michael Harmer, Harmers Workplace Lawyers
Mark Irving, Victorian Bar
Professor Joe Isaac, Melbourne University
Peter Rozen, Victorian Bar
Associate Professor Bob Russell, Griffith University
Julia Watson, Melbourne University