Don’t get caught out - Is it time to review your payroll processes and entitlements under your Award?
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An enforceable undertaking entered into by Suncorp serves as a reminder to all Employers to ensure that staff are being paid in accordance with the provisions of an Enterprise Agreement (s) that covers, its employees. It is important also to know and understand the applicable Agreements and make sure that all tools used in calculation and payment of employee entitlements are set up and managed correctly and regularly monitored.
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Suncorp self-reported breaches to the FWO in 2020 and has entered an enforceable undertaking to back paid employees $32 million including interest and superannuation.
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The Fair Work Ombudsman described the Enforceable Undertaking as appropriate given Suncorp’s cooperation and demonstrated commitment to rectifying underpayments and to stringent preventative compliance measures to ensure employees are paid correctly in the future.
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Suncorp had underpaid more than 15,800 employees (minimum wages) from May 2014 to March 2022, because they had inconsistently applied the term “Rostered Employee” and the associated Rostered Employee clause contained in its Enterprise Agreements.
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Their agreement defined a ‘Rostered Employee’ as “one who is regularly rostered to work shifts in which some or all of their working hours regularly fall outside the scope of ordinary hours”.
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Suncorp identified the under payments after an internal review into specific pay and leave practices, including their roster systems. Misunderstanding of how to appropriately apply entitlements under a self-serve process led to the underpayment of entitlements which included overtime, shift loading, penalties, annual leave loading, public holidays, long service leave, redundancy, payments in lieu of notice, meal allowance and superannuation in addition to minimum rates of pay.
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The Fair Work Ombudsman described the Enforceable Undertaking as appropriate given Suncorp’s cooperation and demonstrated commitment to rectifying underpayments and to stringent preventative compliance measures to ensure employees are paid correctly in the future.
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Penalty rates and allowances can be difficult to understand. If you require more information on payment of wages, penalty rates and allowance in your workplace, please contact the Team [email protected]?or 1300 720 004.
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Information in HR Advice Online guides and blog posts is meant purely for educational discussion of human resources issues. It contains only general information about human resources matters and due to factors, such as government legislation changes and may not be up-to-date at the time of reading. It is not legal advice and should not be treated as such.