2019 was full of high-profile cases where big and small businesses had failed to pay their employees correctly. Although the phrase wage theft was bandied around with abandon, in our experience it is very rare for employers to deliberately underpay their employees. However, what these high-profile cases demonstrate is that understanding Industrial Awards and applying them to complex working hours arrangements is not easy and mistakes can easily be made. We have previously identified the

All public companies, large proprietary companies and corporate trustees of APRA regulated superannuation entities must have a whistleblower policy from 1 January 2020. The Corporations Act, 2001, was amended to provide new whistleblower protections from 1 July 2019. However, a further 6-month period was provided to enable effected organisations to prepare and release their whistleblower policy. The whistleblower protections available under the Corporations Act provisions include criminal as well as civil penalties for a person

Underpayment of wages revelations are coming thick and fast from the most unlikely sources – the big employers. Woolworths, Wesfarmers, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, Super Retail Group and Michael Hill Jewellers to name a few.  How can this be happening in the technologically savvy world of 2019?  There is no one reason why underpayments occur. In our experience the below are the main risk areas for employers, regardless of business size. Modern Award coverage Many employers

Filing out time sheets is boring! No one likes doing it, but not completing them substantively increases the risk for an employer being unable to defend a claim for underpayment of wages and a civil penalty (fine) under the Fair Work Act, 2009 (the Act). The Act now provides that in a claim for underpayment of wages there is a reverse onus on the employer to disprove the claim. What this means in practice is

Today is World Mental Health Day and is therefore a good opportunity to consider mental health at work. We are often asked when and how mental health became a workplace issue. The answer often surprises people, as it has always been a workplace issue, we just haven’t always recognised it as such.  Although there is now much greater awareness of mental health issues impacting employment, there have always been situations in the workplace, which if