Fairwork Is for Employers as Well?

LBargaineILove on 03/03/2019 - 23:08

Hi Bargainers,

I have a strange instance in this place.
I had an employee who worked for me for about 2 months and I gave legal pay always but never paid her extra for Sat-Sun shifts, new business and new learnings everyday.

Now after she completed her work here and went back she went to fairwork straight and not to me and complained that I was only casual and I worked this many hours and all of a sudden her minimum pay was shown as $25 as opposed to $18.9 as per the Industry pay rates.\

My question is how flexible is fairwork and is there any room for negotiation? Mine is small and relatively new business and cannot afford these things as burden if it falls on me.

Lastly, I caught the employee red handed stealing from my shop and I also showed her video footage for the same.

Give me some options

Thanks Bargainers.

Financial

Comments

  • altomic on 03/03/2019 - 23:11
    +7

    Go to the police with the footage of her stealing.

    It is that simple.

    The thread is closed.

    • BargaineILove on 03/03/2019 - 23:15
      -6

      I wish it would have been that simple, this footage was in Jan and I got a letter from Fairwork now.
      I checked my previous footages and that is wiped off, I should have saved it but have not..

      New Learnings for me but this is a way too costly one.

      • [Deactivated] on 04/03/2019 - 09:30

        So you lost the evidence of her stealing.

        Does she have evidence of her employment?

      • bobbified on 04/03/2019 - 15:21

        this is a way too costly one.

        The difference between the part time and casual rate is about $6/hour.

        If she only worked two months, assuming she worked 8 hours/day and every single day of those two months (which she probably didn't), the total max difference would be about $3,000 in backpay.

        You telling me that your business cashflow is that tight?

  • whooah1979 on 03/03/2019 - 23:15
    +1

    she completed her work here and went back

    Did this person leave Australia?

    • BargaineILove on 03/03/2019 - 23:17

      She went back to goldcoast where she originally came from

  • SnoozeAndLose on 03/03/2019 - 23:16
    +2

    Now after she completed her work here and went back she went to fairwork straight and not to me and complained that I was only casual and I worked this many hours and all of a sudden her minimum pay was shown as $25 as opposed to $18.9 as per the Industry pay rates.\

    your sentence is not clear who is who. you are the employer and not casual.

    How did you come up with $18.9 before? and where was it shown as $25?

    Lastly, I caught the employee red handed stealing from my shop and I also showed her video footage for the same.

    This is different matter, you should refer her to the police but if your employee is right then you will need to back pay her the correct rate.

    If you use the stealing evident to threaten her not to continue with Fairwork then you are committing a crime too.

    I believe due to her lay off because of stealing and now she is taking the revenge on you. Just report her to the police and ready to back pay her, it would be too much money for 2 months and you learn as a lesson.

    • BargaineILove on 03/03/2019 - 23:19

      My shop is a bakery and legal part time rate for employee on Level 1 is $18.9 but on casual is $25

      • spackbace on 03/03/2019 - 23:27

        What's on her contract/payslips? Casual or part-time?

        • BargaineILove on 03/03/2019 - 23:28
          +1

          Payslips say $19 and I have not got her to sign any contract.

      • Ughhh on 03/03/2019 - 23:30
        +9

        So is she casual or part-time perm?

        No offence, but that's a lot of carelessness for basic simple stuff like knowing penalty rates for weekend and saving important evidence.

      • Krankite on 04/03/2019 - 10:27
        +2

        Did you pay for public holidays, sick leave or annual leave? These are the main differences between Casual and part time. Given she was stealing from you in January it's likely you would of had to pay at least one public holiday, this would be clear evidence that she was a part-time employee.

  • whooah1979 on 03/03/2019 - 23:25

    I caught the employee red handed stealing from my shop and I also showed her video footage for the same.

    Report this to the LAC. They may be able to find enough evidence to charge this person with an offence.

  • JimmyF on 03/03/2019 - 23:29
    +10

    My shop is a bakery and legal part time rate for employee on Level 1 is $18.9 but on casual is $25

    Ok… this should have been in the first post.

    So did you employ her as casual or as a full time?

    Did you give her sick leave and holidays?

    If she was a casual, then you'll need to pay her as such if you only paid her the full time rate instead.

    So you short changed her $6.10/hr @ 40 hrs a week for 2 months is about $1952-2196 + super I'm guessing.

    Mine is small and relatively new business and cannot afford these things as burden if it falls on me.

    True, but its only about $2k…… Live and learn.

    Lastly, I caught the employee red handed stealing from my shop and I also showed her video footage for the same.

    This is a separate issue, two wrongs don't make a right.

  • franky82 on 04/03/2019 - 00:39
    +8

    This explains that post from last week.

    You know, that one where some girl from Queensland talks about her employer stiffing her on casual and penalty rates for two months, so she decides to steal some ham from the freezer. She was p*ssed!

    OP, two wrongs don't make a right, PLUS doing the wrong thing as an employer ensures that only an employee who can't get other work will want to work for you.

    If you actually have made a mistake here (as opposed to playing fast and loose with employee's legal entitlements to steal from them), it is YOUR mistake and YOU need to pay what you owe. You're also within your rights to report her theft to the police, but the theft doesn't give you a license to steal or commit any other offence to balance the scales. 7 yr olds usually need to be told this, but not grown adults.

  • Meho2026 on 04/03/2019 - 00:54
    +8

    Did her payslips show she was accruing annual leave?
    On her final pay did you pay her out any annual leave accrued?
    If you can prove you paid her out her annual leave then you have evidence that she was permanent and not casual.
    If you did not pay her annual leave accrual when she left, then she is absolutely within her rights to report you to Fairwork.
    Not paying her annual leave basically means you underpaid a casual employee.
    It gets even worse if your employees are under the 'general retail' award or the 'food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing' award because both of those awards stipulate Saturday and Sunday rates above the base rate.
    Basically if you have failed to pay her properly according to the appropriate award then you must pay the price for exploiting her and completely disregarding her rights as an employee.
    Being a new business is no defence.
    You really need to educate yourself on basic matters like this when you run a business.
    At the very least read all the information available specifically for people like you https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/small-business
    All the awards are available on the fairwork website too including the pay rates.
    Imagine the advice she would get if she posted her side of the story on here.

  • Soluble on 04/03/2019 - 04:42
    +1

    Sounds like you employed a casual and paid them part time rates(but no part time entitlements). If that is the case you will have to pay up.

  • whooah1979 on 04/03/2019 - 05:50

    Did this person sign an employment contract?

    • kerfuffle on 04/03/2019 - 06:16
      +2

      Apparently not

      Very dodgy business here …

      • whooah1979 on 04/03/2019 - 06:43

        ohhh. That's not good.

      • GangGang on 04/03/2019 - 07:03

        How did you make the link open up on a certain part of the page? I only know how to format it, it then just takes you to the top of the post.

        Thanks.

  • Donaldhump on 04/03/2019 - 08:30

    Pay what’s due, charge her with stealing

    Tell her if she continues with the fair work stuff, you will lay charges against her, might be statute barred though ( google it for your state)

  • Daniel Plainview on 04/03/2019 - 08:42
    +7

    I say this with no offence due - but I used to be a GM of a small-med sized business and dealt extensively with FWA due to the past GM having not complied with industry awards etc. And I'm astonished that you're looking for advice on OzB rather than either liasing with FWA - who you can speak with anonymously or using their excellent website.

    So thats very poor judgement IMHO and something you should review as you're likely applying such 'logic' to other parts of your business.

    FWA are not flexible - there's specific stipulated standards for all occupations and industries. You were either compliant or not. The alleged theft is a separate matter and should have been handled as such.

    You say your business is new, ok well my advice is to review your current processes as it sounds like there's likely room for improvement and you can be the world's best baker but if you can't stay on top of things like this you'll be another of the small businesses that fails within the first few yrs.

    FWIW there are multiple industry and govt bodies set up to assist/advise small businesses - so MAKE the time to speak with them as many owners get soooooooooooooooooooo deep in their work that they neglect the structure, culture, framework stuff thats vital in early days for long term success.

    • MrBear on 04/03/2019 - 14:47
      +2

      And I'm astonished that you're looking for advice on OzB

      And yet here you are, giving excellent advice…

  • Ace Ventura on 04/03/2019 - 09:57
    +2

    Mine is small and relatively new business and cannot afford these things as burden if it falls on me.

    Not her problem, also not an excuse, who do you think the "burden" of paying staff should fall to?
    Not only does this smack of arrogance, entitlement and dishonesty, it is also littered with poor business planning. How do you not have an indepth business plan that includes financial information on how staff are to be paid, and the required rates?

    Lastly, I caught the employee red handed stealing from my shop and I also showed her video footage for the same.

    this, with the added fact that you werent smart enough to think you should archive said video footage, reads like you are just looking for a justification for you not correctly remunerating your employees.

    Pay the girl, apologise, and in the future, ensure all employees are paid correctly. Failing to do so, is a fast track to excessive staff turnover, leading to further financial troubles.

  • HighAndDry on 04/03/2019 - 10:19
    +4

    You either pay casual rates with casual loading, or pay part-time rates and also give her part-time entitlements (leave, super, etc).

    You can't pay her part-time rates without part-time entitlements.

  • redpump on 04/03/2019 - 10:27
    +2

    Please use this in future https://calculate.fairwork.gov.au/findyouraward to calculate wages. Make sure you are paying superannuation for all your employees. I just recommend you read everything on this website Fairwork. Definitely read up on leave entitlements, mandatory breaks/meal breaks depending on hours worked and NES rules

    Also, you need to fill out a TFN declaration form https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Content/MEI/downloads/T… for each employee.

    You can also download a payslip template here

  • Numpty21 on 04/03/2019 - 12:19
    +3

    Pay up
    People like you give small business a bad name

  • GaryQ on 05/03/2019 - 03:48

    When you caught her stealing you should have given her a good spanking, as is tradition, and told her to come to you for more if she ever needs extra $$

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