Friday, September 26, 2014

CISA Talk 2: The Fair Work Ombudsman

The Fair Work Ombudsman investigates a lot of claims to do with unfair pay, dismissal etc. At the CISA Talk minimum pay was all the talk. We explain this issue.
One of the places where the workers were recently underpaid

As a student you can work for about 20 hours per week, 40 hours per fortnight. DIAC regularly checks on all the students to make sure that they are not going over the 40 hours per fortnight.

Casuals vs part time and full time staff.

Part time and full time staff are permanent employees; casuals are not. They just get asked to work whenever they are needed.

Part time and full time staff get annual leave of up to four weeks per year as well as 10 days sick leave if need be. They also get 2 days compassionate leave (if someone dies or becomes really ill). If you don't take all of these they will accumulate every year.

Casuals however don't get any of these but however they get 25% more earnings per hour.

Pay rates
In Australia it is illegal to be paid under the minimum wage. It is also illegal to have an ABN when you are working for an employer. This is known as "sham contracting" where the employer can pay whatever they want and can refuse to pay super or tax. In Australia everybody pays tax.

There are two types of wages: Award and agreements. There are different awards and agreements for the work that you do and they are all on the fair work site.

You cannot be dismissed for asking about pay. In Australia everyone has a right to fair pay.

So what does the Fair Work do for me when I complain about pay?
It is a free service and you do need to give our your name and where you worked for your case to be fairly assessed by the Ombudsman. One of the things that they do is an enforceable undertaking which means that the business has to do a certain amount of set tasks and back pay people. Another is mediation where you and the business come to some sort of a fair agreement.

If you have a complaint or want any more information do check out this site.

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