Significant changes to casual employment & tips to stay payroll compliant
Casual Employment Updates November 2020
Last month there were significant changes made to Casual Employment. Do you know if your business was affected?
Some of the updates will mean changes to overtime pay rates for casual employees in some awards. If your award was affected and you have not updated your systems, you may be at risk of underpayments!
To find out if your award has been updated you can click here to access the Fair Work Commissions “Schedule of Determinations”
What should you do if you’ve underpaid employees?
We are all human, and mistakes can occur. But regardless, everyone is entitled to be paid correctly. If you discover a mistake has been made, it needs to be corrected as soon as possible. These steps should be taken as soon as mistakes are discovered:
- Work out how long the employee has been underpaid
- Work out how much the employee should have been paid
- Work out how much they were actually paid
- Back pay the employee the variance (this must include any overtime, penalty rates and superannuation)
What can you do to avoid mistakes?
The best thing you can do is, to know what Award applies to your business, then READ IT! Knowledge is power, and ignorance is not an excuse when it comes to employee underpayments!
You can conduct regular internal payroll audits. Create an Audit Checklist that suits your business requirements for compliance. This list could include items such as the below:
- Check dates of birth against award for correct pay rate (this should be done for employees not classified as adults)
- Check for Employee Level pay rate increases
- Review hours of work for each employee, if overtime has occurred, ensure overtime rates were applied
- Check levels and responsibilities of your employees against your award for correct rate of pay
- Check leave accruals are correct
- Check superannuation is calculating correctly
- Ensure any applicable allowances are being paid
- Check the rates paid to employees who work weekends or public holidays are correct
- Review the overall settings of any payroll software you are using
When it comes to payroll, you don’t want to “wing it”! If you are in over your head, seek help from a professional!
Get in touch with us today if you need assistance.