Payroll During the Silly Season

With the silly season fast approaching, it is the busiest time of year for many industries including retail and hospitality.   

Amongst the chaos are the ongoing employment obligations that employers must adhere to when it comes to wages.

During this period, Employees might be working extended hours to get their normal work done in preparation for the Christmas period. This might include a combination of overtime, night work, weekends, and public holidays which will give rise to penalty rates, overtime, and allowances.  

The employment landscape in Australia is known to be the most complex in the world. A good portion of this complication comes from the lengthy 121 Modern Awards employers are required to comply with across many industries and occupations. These Awards set out what these particular types of penalties must be paid and when.  

It is critical that employers understand their obligations around pay and conditions of their employees. Knowing what to pay to employees for time worked and how to apply the applicable rules is important to ensure that an underpayment of wages does not occur.  

Managing payroll requirements leading into this time of year is difficult. It is a good idea to conduct an audit of how you apply wages to ensure that you pay employees correctly and don’t get any nasty surprises of underpayment claims in the future! Another alternative is to consider outsourcing payroll to a specialist.  

Many employers unknowingly make underpayments. This is purely from the lack of knowledge and changes in the conditions.  

Keeping on top of the minimum pay structures of your employees is not something employers can let slip. Changes are consistently occurring in Modern Awards. Knowing when these changes occur and how to process them important. The fines for non -compliance are simply too large for many small businesses. Don’t become the next page 3.