Legal Regulation of Industry Awards — The role of the Fair Work Ombudsman and knowing what industry award applies to you
By Valentina Muoio
Legal compliance of industry awards has been a growing issue in recent years. There are currently over 120 awards that relate to various different industries. For example, if you work at a café or restaurant, it is likely your employment conditions and monetary rate of pay are set out in the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020. Similarly, if you work in a retail store you are most likely employed under the Retail Award 2020. Accordingly, there have been several Government inquiries into the underpayment of employees and how affected employees should be able to acquire money owed to them.
As a result of recent regulatory responses, the body responsible for enforcing modern awards is the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), can investigate possible breaches in the workplace within the last six years. Whilst the majority of the complaints made to the FWO are resolved voluntarily between the employee and employer through free informal dispute resolution, there is a growing trend of employers failing to uphold compliance notices. Accordingly, the FWO can assist employees in initiating action for breach of employment laws or for outstanding debt owed to the employee. This is particularly important so that an employer can uphold their obligations at law, and an employee can receive their legal entitlements.
In 2018, the FWO was given additional powers to approach businesses that have not been compliant with their industry award. Since that time there has been a 10-fold increase in the amount of money back paid to workers at the request of the FWO. This is indicative of the nature of this issue within the employment law space, and leads to questions such as whether employers truly understand their relevant industry award and the correct level they are required to pay an employee based on their qualifications and duties.
As part of my PACE internship this semester I was fortunate enough to be able to build upon my knowledge of employment and learn more about this area of legal compliance. Throughout this internship at Fairtime Legal, a boutique law firm that has a strong focus on payroll compliance, I assisted in developing a digital level checker for the Retail Award 2020 which will assist clients in determining what level they or their employee is on based on the duties they perform at work. Evidently, if more employers and employees are aware of what level they should be paid under their relevant industry award, the likelihood of a breach is lessened. It is important that both employers and employees are vigilant to changes to their relevant industry awards in order to be better informed of their respective rights and obligations.