On 8 August 2022, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has announced that a record $532 million in unpaid wages and entitlements was recovered for more than 384,000 workers in 2021-22. The recovered amount is more than three times more than the record 2020-21 amount of $148 million and has benefited five times more workers within Australia.
In our recent article, we explained how the coverage under the Miscellaneous Award has been expanded by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). This has meant that ER Strategies is fielding a lot of questions from clients about this change and how award coverage works.
As part of the finalisation of the very long-running Fair Work Commission 4 Yearly Review of Modern Awards, some additional drafting changes to the Fast Food Industry Award have now been finalised.
The act of whistleblowing involves identifying and calling out misconduct and harm to consumers and the public. Whistleblowers are mainly covered by the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) which provides them legal rights and protections, although other legislation can also protect them.
A payroll audit is a review of what employees were paid and the overall compliance throughout the payroll audit process. Under our audit service, an independent calculation is performed of what employees should have been paid and this is then compared to what they were actually paid to identify any under-, or over-payments. Payroll processes, including the record keeping processes, are also checked, ensuring that the whole system is reviewed for any non-compliance.
So-called “Wage Theft”, and wage underpayments in general, have emerged as an issue in Australia over the last 6 years or so. Put simply, Wage Theft is when an employer underpays an employee either intentionally, or with high levels of negligence or recklessness towards their payroll compliance obligations. The level of ‘intent’ is where Wage Theft differs from underpayments in general. 2019 analysis from PwC estimated that underpayments to employees could be as high as $1.35 billion per year. Whilst only an estimate and not focusing on Wage Theft specifically, it can be assumed that despite only emerging as an issue relatively recently, Wage Theft has been occurring long before underpayments were discovered and publicised.
The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth) applies to all employers and employees as well as prospective employees – permanent or casual. The Act includes discrimination on the basis of a ‘criminal record’ where an employee is dismissed from employment or denied certain opportunities due to a criminal record. Further, a job applicant may be discriminated against through being denied the job because of their criminal record.
Most employers now conveniently align the probation period under their contracts of employment to the minimum employment period under the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act).
Each financial year, the Fair Work Ombudsmen (FWO) releases its Compliance and Enforcement Priorities. These are designed to highlight areas where the FWO believes there to be a lack of employment compliance, or potential for underpayments, within a specific industry or sector and where they will be devoting their attention and resources in the coming year.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees were forced to work remotely. As a result, the advantages of working from home became evident to many. When restrictions were lifted, employers faced resistance from employees who preferred to continue working from home.
Get the latest HR/ER/IR Updates and news that could affect your business straight into your inbox.
