From January 1st, 2025, intentional underpayment of wages or entitlements is a criminal offense under amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009. This is relevant to both SME’s and large institutions, as La Trobe University currently understands in detail. LaTrobe will complete more than $10.77 million in payments, including superannuation and interest, to more than 6,700 underpaid staff as part of entering into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Under the EU, the University must also make a $220,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund and implement a broad range of measures to ensure compliance with workplace laws going forward. This remediation process is also happening within non-compliant SME business’s.
The underpayments were caused by systemic failures in compliance, central oversight and governance processes, with schools adopting differing payroll practices. These causations are not limited to big-business. We are regularly engaged with SME’s to drive HR projects that:
- Ensure compensation compliance to Award requirements through salary benchmarking,
- Design workforces for central oversite across business entities and
- Sound company-wide governance processes.
If you know you have a gap in this area of your business, don’t wait until you have an employee complaint or a letter from Fairwork. Let’s get on top if it together now, and stay one step ahead!
Casual employment changes are now in effect
Casual employment rules changed on 26 August 2024. These changes include new pathways to permanent employment that start on 26 February 2025. From 26 February 2025, eligible casuals can provide written notice to their employer to change to full-time or part-time employment under the employee choice pathway. An employer can only refuse the notice for certain reasons.
Fair Work have new templates available to help you meet the new rules, and employees and employers can use the new templates to make or respond to a notice under the employee choice pathway. Further information can be found here.