Monday 13 February - Creating Confidence In How People Are Paid
Newsbite: TFN declaration
As we know, each of your new employees should complete a Tax file number declaration. You are no longer able to download the PDF version of the TFN declaration form from the ATO website. This will mean you will need to use paper forms, lodging online, linking through myGov or through your onboarding system.
Newsbite: University of Melbourne faces court for alleged underpayments
“Allegations of universities underpaying their employees by systematically failing to follow their own enterprise agreements are of great concern. It is important that where we find alleged serious contraventions we take employers to court and seek penalties to deter non-compliance,” Ms Parker said.
“Universities, like all employers, should have proactive measures in place to ensure they are meeting workplace laws and paying employees correctly for all hours worked. If employers become aware of concerns their employees may be being underpaid, they must promptly seek advice and rectify any compliance issues discovered.”
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker
The Fair Work Ombudsman has commenced legal action against The University of Melbourne, alleging it underpaid casual staff in the Faculty of Arts and made false or misleading records.
The regulator alleges in the Federal Court that between February 2017 and December 2019, the University breached the Fair Work Act when it failed to pay 14 casual academics for all hours of marking work at the hourly rates required under its enterprise agreements.
Instead, the University allegedly paid the staff based on “benchmarks”, which varied depending on the school in the Faculty, and in some cases described payment for marking at a rate based on “4,000 words per hour” and at one school on “one hour per student”.
It is alleged that total underpayments of the 14 staff were $154,424, and ranged from $927 to $30,140 for individuals.
Staff allegedly had to enter their hours worked into the University’s human resources information system according to the benchmarks, rather than according to the actual hours worked. The Fair Work Ombudsman therefore alleges The University of Melbourne failed to record all hours worked by the casual academics, and further that the University made and kept records known to some managers within the Faculty to be false or misleading.
The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges that the University’s breaches of its enterprise agreements were ‘serious contraventions’ under the Fair Work Act from 15 September 2017 (when the serious contraventions provisions commenced).
The FWO alleges that the University expressly, tacitly or impliedly authorised the contraventions because of a corporate culture involving the use of marking benchmarks. It is also alleged that a number of specific senior leaders in the Faculty knew of the benchmarking practices and that they resulted in employees not being paid for all time spent marking.
The maximum penalties for serious contraventions are 10-times higher than the penalties that would otherwise apply.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the court action highlighted why the university sector was one of the regulator’s top priorities.
“Allegations of universities underpaying their employees by systematically failing to follow their own enterprise agreements are of great concern. It is important that where we find alleged serious contraventions we take employers to court and seek penalties to deter non-compliance,” Ms Parker said.
“Universities, like all employers, should have proactive measures in place to ensure they are meeting workplace laws and paying employees correctly for all hours worked. If employers become aware of concerns their employees may be being underpaid, they must promptly seek advice and rectify any compliance issues discovered.”
The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges that the benchmarking practices continued despite the inadequacy of the benchmarks being raised with certain managers within the Faculty in April 2016, February 2017 and on multiple occasions during 2018 and 2019.
2023 - Australian Payroll Survey
Are you a talented Australian payroll professional?
If so the 2023 Australian Payroll Survey needs your input.
All survey respondents will receive a detailed report including analysis, trends, technology and payroll salary data ... plus Australian Payroll Association will provide a $500?training?voucher to ten randomly selected individuals who complete the survey.
Take the survey?- https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2023-payroll-survey
Time to complete = 4mins
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Australian Payroll Summit - Speaker Line Up
Australian Bureau of Statistics - Current Labour Market Trends and Insights from STP Data. The Fair Work Ombudsman - Secure Jobs, Better pay legislation and other workplace relations issues relevant to payroll professionals. Australian Taxation Office - During this session, attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the latest changes to superannuation, and get guidance on how to comply with them. Workplace Law - A review of recent changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Australian Payroll Association - Common payroll mistakes to avoid. INS - Workforces for the Future - The payroll transformation journey and the importance of people. Employment Hero - The work from anywhere movement is it here to stay? Tracy Angwin - Why is payroll so hard?
Buy tickets: CLICK HERE
Payroll Question & Answer
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Newsbite: US-backed payroll software company Humanforce has acquired the Australian arm of fintech Wagestream – formerly Earnd
Its the second local startup acquisition in six months by Humanforce, which is now backed by Californian private firm, which snapped up Airtree-backed competitor Ento in September last year.
Accel-KKR spent $60 million acquiring a majority stake in 21-year-old Humanforce in May last year. That means the Wagestream acquisition will need Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
Wagestream Australia began life in 2018 as Earnd, cofounded by Josh Vernon and Serge Kotlyarov, to give employees access to income as they earn it. After?a $2.5 million raise in 2019, backed by NAB Ventures, Alvin Singh and Bosco Tan, and financial services execs including John Banfield,?Andrew Birch and Rob Lederer,
It was a wild ride from thereon in, with the now notorious supply chain financing company Greensill snapping up the business for around $20 million in 2020. When Greensill collapsed in early 2021 Earnd’s founder, Josh Vernon, managed to convince UK fintech Wagestream, also founded in 2018, to acquire the business from Greensill’s administrators.?A year on, Earnd raised A$81 million in a series C in April 2022, led by new US investors Smash Capital and BlackRock, alongside existing shareholders Balderton Capital, Northzone, and charity fund Fair By Design.
It rebranded as Wagestream Australia and is now being offloaded the business to Humanforce less than two years later.
Around 1 million employees at companies including Pizza Hut, Hungry Jack’s, JD Sports, BPAY, Freedom Furniture and Carnival Australia use Wagestream to get their pay early. The platform also offers financial wellbeing advice to users.
Humanforce CEO?Clayton Pyne said the acquisition of Wagestream Australia aligns with the company’s focus of empowering deskless workforces with the tools and tech “to make work easier and life better”.
“Humanforce is fully committed to helping Wagestream Australia customers continue to deliver a positive employee experience,” he said.
“We are thrilled to join forces to alleviate employees’ financial burden while helping businesses beat the talent crunch, so they can focus on improved productivity, compliance confidence and cost control.”
Vernon said that while financial stress is heightened for deskless workers as their earnings are typically irregular.
“With the combined power of Humanforce’s integrated workforce management and payroll solution, employees can manage their shifts, rosters, track their pay, and manage their financial wellbeing with complete transparency through a single, unified Humanforce solution,” he said.
www.austpayroll.com.au