Monday 18 July - Creating Confidence In How Australians Are Paid
Question.
Answer.
You can only make a deduction from an employee’s pay or require them to pay money to you in limited situations. An employer can only deduct money if:
Examples include salary sacrifice arrangements or additional payments into an employee’s super fund. An employee's written agreement must be genuine. They can't be forced to agree to a deduction. Deductions have to be shown on the employee’s pay slip and time and wages records.
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National Payroll Day - Share the love
This Friday 22 July 2022 is National Payroll Day.
It's our annual opportunity to celebrate those who keep Australia paid and to share our thanks for their dedication to this critical work.
The APA team are celebrating with a lunch so you'll see some photos on Linkedin on Friday!
What will you do to support and celebrate your payroll team? Please share your ideas here and photos on Friday and don't forget to hashtag?#APANationalPayrollDay?so we can celebrate with you!
Visit our website to download a National Payroll Day poster and email signature (direct link click here) to raise awareness about the work that payroll professionals do every single week, fortnight and month.
Newsbite - Enforceable Undertaking (underpayments)
National community health and aged services organisation Silver Chain Group Limited has back-paid staff in Western Australia more than $17 million and entered into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The not-for-profit organisation self-reported its non-compliance to the FWO in 2020 after becoming aware of underpayments following a review it commenced to investigate employee concerns.
Between 2013 and 2021, Silver Chain’s WA employees were underpaid entitlements set out in the Silver Chain Group Limited National (Non-Nursing) Enterprise Agreement 2017 (and its 2014 and 2009 predecessor Enterprise Agreements).
The employees performed work at various locations in WA, servicing Silver Chain clients throughout Perth and in regional areas, including Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Carnarvon, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Mandurah, Margaret River, Narrogin and Port Hedland.
Most of the underpaid employees were engaged part-time in care aide, home help and therapy assistant positions. Some casual and full-time employees were also underpaid.
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The underpayments were a result of systematic failures specific to Silver Chain’s WA operations. When changes were continually made to employees’ scheduled shifts, Silver Chain failed to adjust employees’ pay and entitlements accordingly.
The majority of underpayments resulted from Silver Chain failing to pay overtime entitlements that were payable because employees weren’t provided with the unpaid meal breaks they became entitled to as work schedules and shift durations changed.
Silver Chain also failed to provide paid tea breaks and unlawfully treated some gaps between client appointments as unpaid breaks when employees were required to be paid for these.?The organisation also underpaid employees’ superannuation entitlements.
Silver Chain has back-paid over $17 million to more than 2,300 current and former employees, including superannuation and interest. Individual back-payments range from small amounts to over $50,000.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said that an EU was appropriate because Silver Chain had cooperated and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying underpayments.
“Under the Enforceable Undertaking, Silver Chain has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure workers are being paid correctly. These measures include engaging, at the company’s own cost, audits of its compliance with workplace laws over the next two years,” Ms Parker said.
“This matter demonstrates how important it is for employers to place a high priority on workplace compliance and ensure that their systems and processes support full compliance with Awards or agreements. In this matter, the limitations in how Silver Chain had set up its rostering system and its scheduling practices led to breaches of its enterprise agreements and a substantial backpayment bill.”
“Any employer who needs help meeting their lawful obligations to their employees should contact the Fair Work Ombudsman for free advice and assistance.”
Under the EU, Silver Chain is also required to publish social media and website notices detailing its workplace law breaches, provide evidence of improvements made to its payroll and rostering systems and implement a staff education and training campaign.
Newsbite - Unpaid Pandemic Leave
Unpaid pandemic leave in awards On 8 April 2020, the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) made determinations varying 99 awards, adding unpaid pandemic leave and annual leave flexibility.
The determinations inserted a temporary new Schedule X into these 99 awards, which provide 2 weeks of unpaid pandemic leave and the ability to take twice as much annual leave at half their normal pay if their employer agreed.
The Commission extended the entitlement to unpaid pandemic leave under Schedule X, with the provisions now ending in all awards from 30 June 2022. The entitlement to take annual leave at half pay ended on 31 December 2021.
Newsbite - Victorian Payroll tax surcharge: “Mental health and wellbeing levy”
From 1 January 2022, a new levy relating to mental health and wellbeing will be implemented as a payroll tax surcharge on wages paid in Victoria by employers or groups of employers (businesses) with national payrolls exceeding AUD 10 million per financial year. The following surcharge rates will be applied to the Victorian share of wages above the relevant threshold:
Existing payroll tax exemptions for private schools, hospitals, charities, local councils, and wages paid for parental and volunteer leave will apply for the levy.
To see more information click here.
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