Media release – 2nd November – Fair Work Ombudsman
Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered $404,721 in wages for 623 underpaid workers.
Where – 77 businesses across a range of suburbs, including Brisbane CBD, South Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and Sunnybank.
What they found – 75 per cent of businesses had breached workplace laws.
Of the 58 businesses found to be in breach.
- 53 had underpaid their workers and
- 26 had failed to meet pay slip and record-keeping requirements.
The most common breaches found were;
- failure to pay penalty rates or casual loading (40 businesses), followed by
- underpayment of the minimum hourly rate of pay (37 businesses) and
- breaches of pay slip laws (19 businesses).
What lesson can you find in this?
- Employers need to know their rights and obligations in their workplace. This includes knowing the correct award for their employees and relevant minimum pay rates, including penalty rates and overtime.
- Most problems in the workplace happen when there is a lack of awareness about workplace entitlements. Getting pay and entitlements right also means employers can avoid serious penalties.
How can Fresh HR Insights Help?
- Ensuring your understanding of the 11 minimum employee entitlements
- There are more than 100 awards that cover most people who work in Australia, based on the industry or occupation. Knowing which award applies helps make sure employees get their correct entitlements. We help you in this
- Minimum pay rates are set out in awards. An employer can choose to pay an employee more than the award rate but can’t pay less. We can do a BOOT test and testing on your payrolls to make sure you are compliant
- An employer may also choose to pay an employee an annualised salary. This has to still cover all minimum requirements provided by the relevant award. We help do these comparisons for you in the above-mentioned BOOT
- Help you understand the leave available to employees and when this applies
- Entitlements like breaks and allowances are different depending on the award or agreement that applies. We navigate this for you
- Plus the following
- Disciplinary Management
- Unfair Dismissal claims
- Absence management
- Employment Contracts
- Base Employee Handbooks
- Updating and developing policies and procedures
- Sexual Harassment, discrimination and bullying claims
- Terminations
- Workplace legislation obligations
- Award and Legislation interpretation
- Pay rates and BOOT calculations
