We can’t seem to get away from hearing about non-compliance and salary underpayment issues, whether on the news, in the newspapers, or on social media. Fair Work has a section on its website dedicated to naming and shaming non-compliant firms of all sizes, so it’s not just the big corporations that are getting caught.
The majority of the time, employers’ intentions are good. Businesses may simply lack a solid system with built-in compliance checks and risk management procedures in place. It could be a simple administrative error that breaches their employer’s obligations in some cases and makes you deal with compliance issues in business.
Here are the most prevalent compliance issues in the workplace in Australia, along with some useful recommendations on how to avoid them:
Incorrect Coverage and categorization of awards
The first step toward paying your employees appropriately and consistently is to classify their awards. It refers to the modern reward you give each employee, which sets the benefits they are entitled to.
Employers frequently make the mistake of lumping all of their employees into the same current reward. It’s not uncommon for employees in the same company to be categorized under multiple awards.
Solution
If you are having trouble knowing the awards that fit best with your business, let the team of DHRP help you and guide you about it. Be it compliance issues in the financial services industry or compliance issues in the hospitality industry, and we can help.
Salary statistics on an annual basis
Many recent awards will have annualized pay conditions as of March 2020, according to the Fair Work Commission. Employers must ensure compliance with these adjustments by undertaking an annual reconciliation to show that their employees’ annual wage is not less than what they would have been paid over the year if all of their award entitlements for their work were paid.
Solution
Dynamics 365 FO has the annualization feature. With this, you no longer have to spend time manually entering the data of salaried employees. Get your calculations right away.
Rules for overtime Australia and rostering
There are particular rules for how many hours can be worked and how many breaks are required before overtime is applied, depending on whatever modern award your employee falls under. When employees swap shifts with coworkers, one of the most common mistakes that employers make is losing sight of their working hours. This frequently leads to employees working outside of their regular or agreed-upon hours, entitling them to overtime and rostering pay.
Solution
Modern award interpretation is built into the d365 FO AP automation rostering technology. This means that instances of non-compliance are noted while creating a roster. Shift swaps and roster changes are also handled through the mobile app, where compliance violations are detected, and management approval is required.
Allowances
Allowances are payments paid in addition to an employee’s base pay. Depending on the modern award an employee falls under, this may entail additional duties, travel expense reimbursements, overtime food allowances, and more. Because allowances are based on events, it can be difficult for managers to keep track of the entitlements owing to their staff.
Solution
D365 FO AP’s smart roster feature helps senior managers to populate predefined templates to ensure that required roles are filled for every shift. Filling the shift with someone who would normally perform that role helps mitigate the need for an employee to work higher duties. D365 FO rostering is also flexible, allowing managers to change an individual’s role for a specific shift to ensure they are paid higher duties as needed. The built-in award interpretation feature also detects when an employee is entitled to an allowance (such as an overtime meal allowance) and automatically applies it to their pay.
Breaks
One of the most common compliance traps that employers can fall into is failing to comply with adequate break provisions. Depending on the applicable award, employees may be required to take a break during a shift or wait a certain number of hours between shifts.
Noncompliance can have serious ramifications; for example, the General Retail Industry Award (GRIA) requires employees to take a 12-hour break between shifts. If an employer fails to provide this, the employee must be paid 200 percent of their standard hourly rate until they have a 12-hour break.
Solution
D365 FO award interpretation and smart rostering will notify managers if an employee is rostered without the required break between or during shifts.
Bottom line
Be it small businesses or large enterprise agreements; it always requires enlisting risk management policies. So, if you are wondering about compliance issues in healthcare and how to overcome them, D365 FO is a solution. You can get in touch with the team of DHRP to help you implement the solution as per the requirement of your industry.
