A constant concern being identified in workplaces around the world is gender equality, or more specifically the gap between the weekly earnings of men and women. UN Women estimates women world-wide make approximately 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. Not only does this impact the life of working women, but also means women [...]

The 2021-2022 Financial Budget and Its Impact on Businesses The 2021-2022 Financial Budget is designed to help make more jobs, secure essential services, and create a robust and flexible Australian economy. Australia managed its COVID-19 crisis as well as it could and had fewer infections and deaths than many other countries but the economy [...]

Award increase: November 1st, 2020 Each financial year an Expert Panel of the Fair Work Commission is required under the Fair Work Act to conduct a review of the national minimum wage. This year, the Commission announced a 1.75% increase to the national minimum wage. The increase is usually effective in the first full pay [...]

The Importance of Training and Development in the Workplace Regular training and development in the workplace can seem like a costly venture for a lot of businesses. The time missed off work, coupled with the money and resources it takes to train an employee can seem like a waste of time for a lot of [...]

Remuneration Review – Is it Time for One? The Uniting Church, a registered charity which runs more than 70 residential aged care facilities and other community services, has recently entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman. This is following a remuneration review where they discovered that they had underpaid a number of [...]

Minimum Wage Staggered Increase Last Friday, 19th June, the Fair Work Commission announced its’ decision for the annual minimum wage increase. The national minimum wage has increased by $13 a week, or 1.75%. The new minimum wage will be $753.80 per week or $19.84 per hour for fulltime employees. In comparison to last year’s 3% [...]

Changes to Casual Employment 2020 and Workforce Planning Reviews The recent Federal Court decision on ‘permanent casual’ work should have every business owner rethinking the structure of their workforce. With these changes to casual employment 2020, do your casual employees satisfy the criteria for ‘casual’ employment? What actions do you need to take? Do you know [...]

Wage Theft - Important Legislative changes in 2020 The Fair Work Commission, following a decision from the Full Bench, has determined that annualised salary clauses are to be inserted into a number of modern awards with effect from 1st March 2020. These changes introduce important new practices for HR and payroll aimed at reducing “wage [...]