Help your clients avoid falling prey to the penalties of non-compliance

Workforce Guardian

With just four weeks left of this financial year, it's a good time now to discuss employment relations with your clients to ensure they are meeting their obligations. Help them avoid falling prey to the penalties of non-compliance with pro-active management advice.

 1.  Directors' Personal Liability on Super

The director penalty regime will be extended to include the superannuation guarantee from 1 July 2011 when directors will be held personally liable for their companies' failure to pay employee superannuation. With this date looming, I would strongly recommend that you raise this issue with your clients. All directors and managing directors need to review the super arrangements for employees and contractors and consider whether any changes need to be made before the 1 July kick off.

2.   Paid Parental Scheme Administration

As I'm sure you all know, the Government-funded Paid Parental scheme was brought in at the start of the year. As of 1 July however, all businesses will be responsible for administering the scheme. If your clients haven't yet registered with the Family Assistance Office, I suggest you recommend that they do so now. Your clients also need to ensure their payroll system can record Paid Parental Leave payments and they need to implement appropriate HR policies to document and communicate their obligations to employees as not all of your employees who may qualify for PPL will qualify for Unpaid Leave under the National Employment Standards.

3.   Annual Leave Loading on Termination

A new approach being endorsed by the Fair Work Ombudsman requires annual leave loading on accrued annual leave balances to be paid out when employment ends - even if a Modern Award does not require leave loading to be paid on termination.  With this advice, it's vital that your clients understand which Modern Award or Awards apply to their employees. If the particular Modern Award or Common Law Agreement provides for leave loading then they must pay leave loading on termination or resignation. As this new advice is retrospective to 1 January 2010, they may need to consider setting aside a contingency to fund back-pay claims for the unpaid leave loading in this year's accounts.

4.   Fair Work Inspections

The Fair Work Ombudsman's office makes no secret of its continuous education program and on-site inspections. However a visit from a Fair Work Inspector is rarely good news for any business. With the major focus on full compliance with the National Employment Standards (NES) and any Modern Awards, I suggest that your clients undertake a Workplace Audit of their employment relations compliance. This will help minimise their business risk and provide a checklist to remedy any non-compliance.

5.   Increase in Minimum Wage

Fair Work Australia has announced the country's minimum wage workers will receive a pay rise of $19.40 a week from 1 July 2011. This means the federal weekly minimum wage will increase to $589.30 ($15.51 an hour) from $569.90 ($15 an hour). This year's minimum wage decision also benefits workers across the pay spectrum by awarding a 3.4% wage rise to all Modern Award workers. This will mean a weekly pay increase of at least $19.40 while those on higher classifications can expect significantly more.

Make sure that your clients review their payroll obligations now so that they are ready for the new pay rates on July 1. Subscribers to Workforce Guardian will be kept informed of the updates to Modern Awards as and when they become available.

Expert Help

If your clients are at all uncertain about which Modern Awards apply to their business or employees' occupations, then clearly they will need expert help.

As specialists in the Fair Work Act, Workforce Guardian provides small and medium-sized businesses with assurance that their everyday employment relations' decisions are both legal and compliant. Simplifying HR in business 24x7, Workforce Guardian provides a comprehensive range of practical HR tools including dynamically generated employment agreements, online employment files, HR processes, policies and documents.

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Disclaimer

This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. Workforce Guardian Pty Ltd (www.workforceguardian.com.au) is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.