When the Weather Turns Extreme: Managing Employees, Safety and Workplace Disruption 

Extreme weather events are no longer just an operational inconvenience — they are a growing workplace relations and safety challenge. With what is being forecast as one of the strongest El Niño events on record now commencing, and the prospect of hotter, drier conditions and heightened disruption ahead, this is a timely opportunity to discuss how workplaces can prepare and respond.

Join the NSW Industrial Relations Society for a practical lunchtime webinar on managing employees, safety obligations and business disruption when severe weather affects the workplace.

This session will explore the key issues employers, employees and practitioners need to navigate when heat, storms, floods, bushfires and other extreme weather events disrupt work, including safety duties, consultation, stand-downs, leave arrangements, flexible work, communication and continuity planning.

Alana Rafter

Alana Rafter is a Sydney-based employment and industrial relations lawyer specialising in work health and safety. She advises employers on WHS duties and compliance, manages regulator inquiries and notices, briefs boards on WHS risk, and has contributed submissions to Safe Work Australia's Best Practice Review of the Model WHS Laws. She is a frequent speaker on psychological safety and psychosocial risk management.

Lisa Qiu

Lisa Qiu is a Partner and Solicitor at Citation Legal in Sydney, acting for clients nationally. She advises employers on bullying, harassment, discrimination and workplace investigations — the psychosocial risks that sit at the heart of WHS duties. Dual-qualified in employment and migration law, she appears in the Fair Work Commission, the Federal Circuit and Family Court, and before the Australian Human Rights Commission. 

When:   Wednesday 23 September 2026
Where:  Zoom Webinar (Online)
Time:    1.00pm – 2.00pm AEST
Cost:     Complimentary for all IRS members nationally*           
              Non-members $30.00

*Members of IR Societies around Australia are very welcome to join. An IR Society affiliate code can be obtained from membership@irsnsw.com.au.