Melbourne Cup Day

Melbourne Cup Day

With Melbourne Cup day just around the corner, it is important to remind employers take a few steps to communicate with your employees.
  1. Make sure you current policies are communicated to staff. Remind them of how much notice of sick leave absence an employee needs to provide, or what evidence is required in relation to any absences directly before or after Cup Day (e.g. Medical Certificate).
  2. Note the implications of non-compliance, for example, absences not accompanied by satisfactory evidence may be dee
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Private sector wage rises low

Pay rises in private sector enterprise agreements remain at a near historic-low. The latest Trends in Federal Enterprise Bargaining report shows that wages grew at an average of 3.1% a year in private sector agreements approved by the FWC in the June quarter, up from the 23-year low of 3% in the March quarter.
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Withholding Money from an Employee

Most employers are not fully aware of the circumstances entitling them to make deductions from an employee's wage. This is very much the case where an employer seeks to recover money they believe is owed to them i.e. money lent to them or for damage to a work vehicle. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the "Act") contains specific provisions regarding circumstances of when an employer may make deductions from an employee's payment. A written authorisation from an employee must specify the amount of the deduction. This authoris
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Employment Standards Compliance

Employees must have policies that are consistent with current Employment legislation. Without these, employers are exposed to the risk of not complying with the legislation and incurring penalties. An example of how this may play out is detailed in Scullin v Coffey Projects (Australia) Pty Ltd: No need for the employee to be a primary caregiver. Employee awarded damages for a breach of his entitlements. A male employee requested 12 months parental leave to assist his wife with the care of their newborn twins but the emp
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Underpayment of Wages

Four workers at a café in have been back-paid almost $20,000 following recent intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Three female and one male employee were being paid a flat rate of just $14 an hour. Under the Fast Food Industry Award 2010 they should have received an hourly rate of $23.15 and up to $27.79 on Saturdays. The individual underpayments ranged from $770 to $9674. The owner said he was unaware of minimum wage rates applicable to his workplace. This is completely unacceptable as an excuse, it is up to every
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Procedural Fairness

Following the correct procedure when terminating an employee is extremely important. A recent case further emphasised this when the Fair Work Commission said: “On the basis of the text messages an employee had sent about the Company and his managers, these  contravened the Corporation’s code of conduct, and the commission found because of the employee’s use of social media and text messaging was deliberate, his actions had amounted to wilful misconduct and that the Corporation had a valid reason for dismissing him.
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Transition of business – the full costs

Further to our article last week, we thought it appropriate to complete the picture by highlighting that not only are the wages an issue for a new employer, but when you take over a business you will need to recognise the period of service and some other matters of employees with the seller. This includes areas such as:
  • Leave entitlements;
  • Notice requirements; and
  • Redundancy entitlements.
In addition, you may want to look at the quality of staff and the capability they bring to your
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Victorian Public Holiday – Friday 2 October

Victorian employers are being reminded that Friday will be a public holiday for the first time this year and they should check the pay rates and entitlements that apply. Fair Work Ombudsman says that Victorian businesses operating on AFL Grand Final eve, Friday, October 2 2015, can get the information they need at www.fairwork.gov.au/publicholidays. All the information employers need to understand and comply with their rights and obligations is on the website.
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Transition of Business – hidden costs

A number of workers in Melbourne have been back-paid following recent intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman. The largest recovery was for four young casual waitresses at a café  who were underpaid a total of $13,000. After buying the café, the owner continued the previous employer’s practice of paying flat rates, rather than checking the wage rates applicable to the business. As a result, the new owner had to back pay the employees for the entire time they were underpaid, and received a fine for their conduct. Whe
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Termination – Heat of the moment

An employee has won his unfair dismissal case after his manager told him in the heat of an argument not to bother coming back to work on Monday. He was employed as a driver for a small family business . He had come into work whilst on annual leave to set up a new truck. He was resentful about being called into work and having his annual leave disrupted which sparked an argument with his manager. The Fair Work Commission heard that the interaction between the employer and the employee went as follows: The Continue Reading