Don’t Throw Away Those State Awards Yet!

Whilst everyone has been busy in the last 12 months figuring out which Modern Awards are relevant to their business and aligning their staff to classifications in these, it must not be forgotten that the previous State Awards are still relevant till 2014.

For the great majority of businesses, minimum pay rates are not those stated in Modern Awards. Your employee’s minimum pay rates come from a combination of the previous State Award pay rates and the Modern Award rate – these are known as transitional rates. In many cases the transitional rates may be higher than the new Modern Award rate and it's the transitional rates that apply.

Most everyone is now aware of the redundancy pay entitlements set out in the National Employment Standards (NES) but did you know that some State Awards have redundancy entitlements that are greater than those in the NES and these are the entitlements that apply if your business makes an employee redundant. Read an example of how this could affect your employees on the Your HRmanager website.

This is not to say that Modern Awards are not relevant. Only parts of the Modern Award are transitional till 2014, the remaining parts were effective from July 2010.

Familiar comments we hear are “I pay my staff more than the award so I don’t need to worry” or “My employees are not covered by awards.” Most employees are now covered by Awards and attention is needed particularly when paying over award salaries to ensure the employee is still better off than if they received all of the Award’s entitlements.

If you are unsure about how to calculate transitional rates for your employees or whether your employees paid over-award salaries pass the ‘better off’ overall"  test, please contact us.

Are Your Contractors Really Employees?

Recent prosecutions by the Fair Work Ombudsman highlight that some employers are still engaging staff as contractors when it fact they should be employees and receive employee entitlements. Experiences with our own clients also suggest that there is still confusion surrounding who is a true contractor.

There are a number of factors which may contribute to determining the difference between an employee and an independent contractor. However, it is important to note that no single indicator can determine if a person is a contractor or an employee. 

This makes it tough – and the Fair Work Ombudsman is cracking down on employers who try to disguise an employment relationship as a contracting one, usually to avoid paying employee entitlements. This is known as ‘sham contracting’ and has provisions under the Fair Work Act.

There can be great value in engaging contractors as they:

• Offer greater ‘flexibility’ than a direct employment relationship
• Provide access to expertise not available in the employee pool
• Reduce business’s obligations regarding employment
• Carry the risk

Organisations, however, have to be very careful in the way they engage contractors and ensure not only that there is proper documentation in place, but also that the employment relationship reflects what is in the documentation and they are treated as a contractor.

If you need help with independent contractors agreements or determining whether your contractors are really employees, please contact us.

Daylight Saving Ends Soon

Just a reminder for all businesses, especially those doing work with businesses in other states or those who have operations in other states, that daylight saving ends in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and ACT on Sunday 3rd April at 3am (AEDT). If you're in one of these states remember to put your clocks back one hour (to 2am AEST).

Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland do not participate in daylight saving.