PLEASE USE AUSTRALIAN LAW PLEASE.
ANSWERS BASED ON AUSTRALIAN LAW PLEASE.
Taylor has just graduated with a degree in architectural design. Shes done several internships and is looking for her first full-time position. Shes not too worried about finding a position quickly because Taylors mother, Lorraine, is also an architect and owns a firm called BuildUp. A month after graduating, Taylor and Lorraine are having coffee at Lorraines work office. Lorraine says that Taylor might as well spend the time between now and when she gets a position working for BuildUp. Lorraine says she can offer Taylor the average wage for an architecture graduate and she will be given her own office, and be trained by some of the best people at BuildUp. Taylor thinks it is a good idea and accepts immediately, promising to spend the rest of the day collating her portfolio to show the senior executives at BuildUp. The next day Taylor arrives to start working at BuildUp. To her surprise she is given a shared cubicle rather than an office and is told that all the executives are far too busy to train her at the moment. Instead Taylor is given a
mountain of administrative tasks to do. Finally she finds out that the average wage for an architectural graduate is much higher than what she is being paid. When she approaches HR with all of this, they tell her that she doesnt have a contract with BuildUp so there is really nothing she can do.
a) Taylor is interested to know whether she has a contract with BuildUp based on everything discussed with Lorraine? (15 marks)
After a couple of months Taylor finally gets an interview at UpIt, a prestigious architectural firm. At the interview, Taylor is told that there will be two graduates hired for the same six month period and each graduate will work with Jayce Wills, the head of UpIt, for three months out of the six months. At the end of this period Jayce will choose one graduate to continue on with the firm. Taylor is not sure about this as she doesnt want to jeopardize her chances of getting a graduate position somewhere else by spending six months at UpIt and then possibly not getting full-time employment. The HR representative tells Taylor that it is a wonderful opportunity and that she will get to go to trade shows where she can mingle with executives from other firms and gain tons of experience in the six months.
Taylor is convinced by this. She accepts the position and signs a contract of employment.
Taylor starts the next day. She meets the other graduate, Wes. Taylor and Wes get along very well and often have lunch together. Wes is allocated the first three months working with Jayce Wills and starts immediately. Taylor, on the other hand, is shown to
her desk and is given very simple, menial tasks to do. Shes often sent out to give talks to university school students about applying for internships and is the key contact for collaborations that UpIt does with interns from other firms. Wes has started working on
an important project with Jayce. The project involves designing a hotel that resembles Buckingham Palace. Its a big project and most of the executives are involved in it. There are several trade shows during the first three months, but since the Buckingham
Palace hotel design is the star of UpIt for this year, Taylor is not asked to attend as she is not familiar with the project. Wes attends instead. To Taylors surprise, after three months she is told that her rotation wont start until the month after as the Buckingham
Palace hotel is taking longer than expected and Jayce wants to start her rotation with a new project. Taylor is rather upset about this. While HR does assure her that she will get her full three months, it means that Wes has received four months with Jayce. Taylor does finally start her rotation with Jayce and is works on a local school design. Jayce is very impressed with Taylor, but Taylor suspects that Wes will get the position at the end of her rotation. She suspects this because of a conversation she had with Wes over
lunch where Wes said that the Buckingham Palace Hotel was a big hit and that UpIt was getting a lot of business from the UK because it. He takes the opportunity to warn Taylor that Jayce has mentioned that he believes UK business requires someone
familiar with the UK. Wes was born in the UK. Further Wes tells Taylor that Jayce has mentioned several times that a more mature graduate is needed for these types of jobs as they will be liaising with high executives at very important companies. Wes is at least
five years older than Taylor. Taylor is very upset about this and even more so when Jayce pulls her from the local school project because the final checks and layout must be done by someone with at least four months experience at UpIt – Taylor only has two
months. Wes is chosen to finish the project instead and is named as the graduate that will continue at UpIt.
Taylor comes to you for advise on:
b) any claim she may have regarding what was presented to her during the interview under both common law and statute law (do not consider the information provided in part (d) when answering this question) (25 marks)
c) any claim that can be made in terms of discrimination (20 marks)
Taylor makes an appointment with HR to discuss all of this. When discussing the fact that she has not been to any trade shows, mingled with executives from other firms or gained tons of experience, the HR representative shrugs and says that those things were not included in the written contract. Taylor is appalled by this as she knows they were said in the interview. She checks the contract and indeed finds that the contract outlines the arrangement regarding the three month rotations, that one graduate will be chosen at the end of six months as well as other standard terms such as payment, work hours etc. The rest of what was discussed in the interview has not been included.
d) Taylor comes to you for advice on whether the verbal conversation forms part of the contract under the parole evidence rule (please answer this question separately from
part (b)). (20 marks)
Feeling disheartened and finding herself behind a pile of simple tasks for the remainder of the side months, Taylor begins working on a design for another hotel – an Italian themed one. She works on this at home most of the time and sometimes on lunch breaks. Since she is just a graduate, she does have a look at the Buckingham Palace hotel design specifications to make sure she has designed the hotel correctly. She also shows the design to a couple of executives who praise it highly and give her some tips.
Very pleased with her work, Taylor puts the design on her personal website. It is picked up by DesignYou, a boutique building design company who want to purchase the design from her. Taylor is keen to sell.
e) Taylor comes to for advise on whether she is able to sell the design to DesignYou and any legal issues that can arise with UpIt. (20 marks)
