Christmas is traditionally the time of the year for giving, whether it’s the routine silly socks or a bottle of champagne as a thank you.
Giving in the workplace can have a different meaning at Christmas, even if it’s ensuring each of your staff have equal time off, rotating who works on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Eve or turning a blind eye to an early minute on your last working day.
There are roughly five weeks until Christmas and no doubt you’re getting ready for a strong trading period. If you’re in retail or hospitality, you’re juggling the allocation of shifts and hoping it will be increasingly busy as the days count down. If you’re in an office, it could be finalising orders, seeing clients and making sure you leave no file open before you close for a few days if you can. And if you’re in a trade, you’re no doubt wondering if you can afford to take the time off and risk missing those lucrative work calls when you’re needed on public holidays.
As we start the mad dash, it’s the perfect time to make sure you’re fully aware of your obligations to permanent, part-time and casual staff and their rates of pay, working conditions and leave entitlements.
As an employer, the festive season can be a bit of a minefield when considering public holidays, Christmas and New Year’s Day, and even when weekends fall and whether they count or not, depending on your industry.
As part of its four-yearly review, The Fair Work Commission has made more than 660 updates to Modern Awards in the past 12 months, so things might have changed since this time last year. These Modern Award changes are not only frequent, they are diverse and have included increases to wage rates, changes to personal leave entitlements, casual conversion to part or full-time employment, domestic and family violence leave and flexible work arrangements. All of these are important for employers to consider.
Wading through detailed Awards, understanding changes and how these might impact your employees can be complex and time-consuming. The last thing you want to do as you’re finalising your workplace calendar year is to inadvertently get it wrong and not pay your employees what they are entitled to.
The Fair Work Ombudsman announced on October 22 that it had recovered more than $40 million for 18,000 underpaid employees during the financial year - the highest recoveries figure in the regulator’s history. There has also been much media lately on workplaces which have accidentally failed to pay their staff correctly and we want to make sure you don’t make the same errors.
To avoid a costly claim or fine for the under payment of wages, Business SA is here to help employers and their payroll officers. Our Business Advisory Services includes the PAYpack Award Service; providing access to Award and wage rates and providing helpful tips and notifications of any changes and what you need to do to comply, 24 hours a day. Our Business Advisory team will support you to ensure that you not only comply with legislation, but you’re the best you can be.
The best gift to a small business owner at this time of the year is often as simple as a helping hand.
Martin Haese is chief executive of Business SA.
This article was originally published in The Advertiser's South Australian Business Journal on Tuesday, 18 November 2019.