SPEAKERS
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR PENELOPE WILLIAMS (PENNY)
Director of the Centre for Decent Work and Industry, QUT
Associate Professor Penelope Williams (Penny) is the Director of the Centre for Decent Work and Industry at
QUT, Co-lead of the Human-Robot Workforce research program in the Australian Cobotics Centre, and an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) 2023-2026 recipient based in the School of Management at QUT. With an industry background in human resources, Penny’s research critically explores technology’s impact on workers and the organisation of work, including the emergence of new work arrangements such as gig or platform work, hybrid working, and AI-enabled automated management practices. Her research on the prevalence and characteristics of digital platform work in Australia has informed several government inquiries, highlighted the gendered dimensions of digital platform work, and expanded debates from food delivery and rideshare to broader forms of gig work such as care and creative work. Within the Australian Cobotics Centre her research helps organisations to understand the human implications when adopting collaborative robots (cobots) in manufacturing and prepare for the emergence of humanoid robots in workplaces. Her current research investigates the platformisation of work and the impact of AI and algorithmic management on workers and those seeking work. Penny is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Industrial Relations, a member of the Queensland Chief Scientists Social Sciences Reference Group, and an advisory member of the Australian Human Resources Institute’s Research and Future of Work panels. She has been a two-time recipient of the QUT Vice Chancellor’s Performance Award for excellence in teaching practice and for research engagement.
COMMISSIONER PHILLIP RYAN
Fair Work Commission
Commissioner Phillip Ryan commenced in his present role with the Fair Work Commission in June 2021. As a Member of the Fair Work Commission, Commissioner Ryan has been appointed to discharge the full range of duties and functions that come before the Commission, including sitting as a member on the Full Bench on appeals or other matters that are required to be determined by a Full Bench. Commissioner Ryan is also the Deputy National Practice Leader for Small Business.
Prior to his appointment, the Commissioner had a 21-year career in the hospitality industry where he ultimately held the position of Director of Legal and Industrial Affairs for the Australian Hotels Association New South Wales. In addition to this role, he concurrently held the roles of National Director, Legal and Industrial Affairs for the Australian Hotels Association National Office from 2017, and the role of Director/Legal Practitioner for Australian Hotels Association NSW’s legal practice, Hospitality Legal (now HTA Legal) from 2018.
Commissioner Ryan is a member of the NSW Bar Association, the Law Society of NSW, and a member of the Industrial Relations Society of NSW Executive Committee.
DEPUTY PRESIDENT ALEX GRAYSON
Fair Work Commission
Alex Grayson is a Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission, having been appointed in July 2023.
Prior to her appointment, she was a lawyer for approximately 17 years. Her last roles before appointment to the Commission were as a Principal Lawyer running Maurice Blackburn’s employment and industrial law division in NSW and as an independent director and Chair of the Operations Committee of multibillion-dollar superannuation fund Hostplus for almost a decade. She was also a proud member of the Executive Committee of the Women Lawyers Association of NSW and the Employment Law Committee of the Law Society of NSW for many years prior to her appointment. Her experience also includes having been a Senior Associate at W G McNally Jones Staff, a National Industrial Officer at the Finance Sector Union and Tipstaff to Justice Staff at the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales. She has run significant Fair Work Commission cases including, most recently, the Aged Care Work Value case.
She has run cases in most courts including the High Court of Australia, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of NSW, the Federal Court of Australia, District and Local Courts and the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW. These matters have involved discrimination matters, sexual harassment, awards, enterprise agreements, industrial action, minimum wages, equal remuneration, dismissals and bullying.
SHELLEY BURGER
CEO, LawY
Shelley is the CEO of LawY. She practiced corporate law for over 12 years before moving in-house in 2019. She joined LEAP group in 2021, progressing from General Counsel to Chief Legal Officer before joining LawY. Her background includes serving on Executive Leadership Teams as Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary across various technology companies in the public and private sectors.
LUIS IZZO
Managing Director, ABLA's Sydney Workplace Relations Practice
Luis oversees ABLA's Sydney Workplace Relations practice and has over a decade’s experience practicing as a specialist employment and industrial relations lawyer acting for a broad range of employers across both the private and public sector.
Luis’ advocacy experience in State and Federal Courts and Tribunals is extensive. In addition to achieving successful outcomes for clients as an advocate in numerous unfair dismissal and industrial dispute arbitrations, Luis acted as one of the lead employer advocates in the 2014/2015 Fair Work Commission Annual Leave Test Case as well as the highly publicised 2016/2017 Penalty Rates Test Case. Following heavily contested hearings in both proceedings, Luis ultimately succeeded in securing a raft of amendments to modern awards in respect of both annual leave and weekend penalty rates.
Luis is the trusted advisor to a number of organisations when it comes to large scale industrial bargaining. In the public sector, he has been the principal advisor on department-wide enterprise agreement negotiations, covering tens of thousands of public sector employees. In the private sector, Luis has advised on enterprise bargaining for the transport, education, aviation, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries. This experience has also extended to obtaining orders preventing unlawful industrial action and successfully resisting good faith bargaining claims and scope order applications filed by union parties.
Luis has conducted numerous investigations for clients in relation to internal employment disputes and bullying and harassment matters and continues to be a lead litigator in the developing General Protections and bullying jurisdictions. In addition to working in private practice, Luis has been seconded to the Australian Federal Police and the Fair Work Ombudsman, working on a variety of employment related litigation and prosecutions and is a member of the Law Society of NSW’s Employment Law Committee.
DEPUTY PRESIDENT MICHAEL EASTON
Fair Work Commission
Prior to joining the Fair Work Commission as a Deputy President in 2021, Michael Easton was a Barrister with 21 years’ experience in the legal profession and more than 30 years’ experience in Industrial Relations. Mr Easton worked for employer associations for 10 years, then a 3-year stint in a law firm, before commencing at the NSW Bar in 2004. At the bar Mr Easton specialised in industrial and employment law matters representing small and large businesses, government agencies, executives and employees.
PROFESSOR BARNEY GLOVER AO
Commissioner, Jobs and Skills Australia
Professor Barney Glover AO began his five-year term as Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia in 2024.
Professor Glover is a distinguished academic leader, an accomplished mathematician and mathematics educator with significant experience in developing strong relationships with the vocational education sector. He is well respected for his engagement with First Nations Australians and disadvantaged communities.
He was Vice-Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University for ten years, from 2014-24, and in 2019 was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to tertiary education, professional associations and cultural organisations. In 2015, Professor Glover was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor for his outstanding leadership whilst Vice-Chancellor of Charles Darwin University from 2009 to 2013. Professor Glover was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Western Sydney University in 2024 in recognition of his decade of leadership.
Professor Glover has served on the boards of a diverse range of corporate organisations and several state and national centres covering areas such as health and medical research, energy, mineral exploration, and telecommunications.
THE HON JUSTICE ROBERT BROMWICH
Federal Court of Australia
Justice Robert Bromwich commenced legal practice in January 1985, joining the year-old Sydney Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) in October of that year. At the CDPP he practiced across a wide range of federal criminal law with a particular focus on white-collar crime, went on secondment to help set up the NSW ICAC, and was appointed an Assistant Director and later in-house counsel. In 1998, he went to the NSW Bar and in 2009 was appointed Senior Counsel. His practice included federal crime, and some State crime (mainly work health and safety), and a wide range of other areas, including public law (especially in migration and law enforcement), competition law, consumer protection and employment law.
In December 2012, he was appointed Director of the CDPP. As Director, he implemented and led wide-ranging organisational reform, as well as appearing frequently in intermediate appeal courts and also in the High Court. On 29 February 2016, he was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Australia in the NSW Registry. He is also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island, and an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, mostly siting on criminal appeals.
As a judge of the Federal Court, he has sat on a large number of proceedings in the Employment and Industrial Relations National Practice Area or which otherwise concern employment law. As a trial judge, these have included general protections, employment-related discrimination proceedings (most recently proceedings brought by an employee of a Mad Mex franchisee against her employer for sexual harassment), Fair Work Ombudsman underpayments proceedings (including against 85 Degrees, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and a restaurant trading as New Shanghai Charlestown), various proceedings involving the CFMEU and CEPU, proceedings concerning the scope and interpretation of enterprise agreements (including a class action against Airservices Australia), restraints of trade, and actions brought by employers against former employees for misuse of confidential information. His Honour has also sat on various Full Court appeals in this practice area, including the appeal from Justice Lee’s liability decision relating to Qantas’s dismissal of its ground staff.
ROSS NASSIF
Manager, Workplace Relations, Local Government
Ross Nassif is the Manager of Workplace Relations at Local Government NSW (LGNSW) and oversees a team of seven industrial officers serving the NSW local government sector. For over two decades Ross has provided advice and representation to LGNSW members on a broad range of industrial and employment law issues. In terms of representation, this has involved appearing in matters before the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales, the Fair Work Commission and the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
During periods of change and transition, Ross has supported the industry with calm, informed and pragmatic guidance. This was evident in the industry’s response to the introduction of the WorkChoices reforms in 2005, Ross’ role in the negotiation and making of six industry awards between 2007 and 2023, the advice and advocacy provided during council amalgamations in 2016 and the industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ross is a current member of the Industrial Relations Society of New South Wales Committee having served as President of the Society between 2013 and 2015.
THE HON SOPHIE COTSIS MP
Minister for Industrial Relations
and Minister for Work Health and Safety
The Hon. Sophie Cotsis MP is the New South Wales Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Work Health and Safety and Member for Canterbury. A proud advocate for better, safer & productive workplaces.
Before entering Parliament, Minister Cotsis worked in the hospitality industry, as well as representing working people, worked in the private & public sector, where she developed a deep commitment to community wellbeing.
Minister Cotsis served in the Legislative Council before being elected as the Member for Canterbury in a Byelection. Since her appointment as Minister in 2023, she has re-established the NSW Industrial Court and sought to modernise the state’s industrial relations and work health and safety frameworks. This has included making the biggest amendments to the state’s industrial relations and work health and safety frameworks in more than 30 years. Minister Cotsis has also led the reformation of icare into a fit for purpose organisation to manage the state’s insurance schemes.
Minister Cotsis has made significant strides to protect workers from deadly dust diseases, including NSW leading the nationwide ban on engineered stone, establishing a Silica Worker Register, implemented a Tunnelling Dust Safety Taskforce and securing $5 million in critical funding for silicosis research and $2.5 million for a state-of-the-art Lung Bus which travels around NSW.
On July 1, 2025, she established Safe Work NSW as an independent regulator with an accompanying $127.7 million investment over four years, which includes creating 51 new Safe Work NSW inspector positions specialising in psychosocial harms and expanding the inspectorate.
JOSEPH MITCHELL
Assistant Secretary, ACTU
Joseph was re-elected as Assistant Secretary at the ACTU Congress in June 2024. Joseph joined the ACTU in 2016, where he has been Political Director and a Policy Officer, as well as working with the Innovation and Growth Taskforces. Most recently he led the ACTU Centre for Workers’ Capital.
Joseph grew up in Canberra and like many young Australians was a waiter through high school and university at local cafes and restaurants. As ACTU Assistant Secretary, Joseph is passionate about winning a better future for working people and growing the union movement.
Joseph has a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Arts from Australian National University and a Graduate Certificate in Applied Finance from the University of NSW.
Outside of work, Joseph is a proud father and a supporter of the Canberra Raiders.
Christa Lenard
Partner, Kingston Reid
Christa is regarded as a dynamic, insightful and approachable lawyer who is focused on finding the very best solutions for her clients. Clients value Christa’s pragmatism and commitment to really understand them, their business’ key stakeholders, and their strategic and operating environments.
Christa has a strong State and Federal Government practice, acting as a trusted advisor on many complex employment matters. Her 20+ years’ experience working with clients across a broad range of industries, including maritime and ports, logistics, construction, aged care, theme parks and technology makes her a highly competent and sought-after advisor, litigator and workplace investigator.
Christa is President of the Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association (ALERA) and immediate Past President of the Industrial Relations Society of NSW. Christa is a Non-Executive Director on the Board if Pinnacle Investment Management Limited, sits on the Council of The Women’s College within the University of Sydney and is a long time group fitness instructor teaching a range of Les Mills classes.
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