We've read all the horror stories about Woolworths, about the ABC, about Bunnings, Qantas, the Very Sorry George Calombaris. Endless. And those are just some of the ones we know about.
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But I've got the answer on how to how to fix this massive underpayment scandal. I mean, how hard can it be to get worker payments right?
Supermarket chains know how to ship three cartons of shrimp paste to the shop in outer Woop Woop. Restaurants manage the gluten-free vegan on table four and the high-intake carnivore on table 13, and the big restaurant groups are doing that in 20 venues at once. And Bunnings? I bet you've never seen an empty widget aisle. CEOs across the land have perfect salaries and they even get bonuses calculated across a matrix of KPIs.
So complex. So difficult. Yet never an error. OK, occasionally the shops run out of my favourite shrimp paste.
Let's be clear. Our employers don't mean to rip us off (I hope). Woolworths claims it was basically a clerical error. The left hand (the one which set the annualised salaries of department managers to only include ordinary hours and reasonable overtime) didn't know what the right hand was doing (rostering those same managers on nights or other times with different pay rates). Very confusing - and now they say they might find many more instances going back years.
So I asked Australia's top industrial relations academics to give us all a guide on how to avoid being ripped off by our employers. Here's what you have to do.
Check your pay rate
But how? Rae Cooper, Professor of Employment at the University of Sydney, urges workers to look at their enterprise agreements. If you don't have one that you can find, do an online search which includes your industry and the phrase "modern award". Cooper has so many top tips: ask your manager directly and get them to email you their answers (terrifying, but the law is on your side). Go to a community legal centre if you aren't sure. Check your payslip against others doing the same work and others doing different work (the Fresh Food managers discovered unionised shelf-stackers were earning more than they were).
Keep track of what you do and when you do it
Professor of law at the University of Adelaide Andrew Stewart, the author of multiple reports for the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Commission, has one excellent piece of advice. Keep a track of your hours. When you arrive, when you leave.
How much superannuation are you really getting?
I found it quite simple to check my own pay rate, but then my employer has made it easily accessible. My pay slip also includes my employer's superannuation contributions. Employers not paying super is a big thing. But I had no idea that every single person with a myGov account could check whether their super had been paid. Helen Hodgson, a professor of law at Curtin University who specialises in taxation, says you should check through myGov (employers are now using the ATO's single-touch payroll system, which shows you in real time where your super is up to). The ATO tells me the super gap in 2016 to 2017 was worth over $2 billion - that's the gap between the super guarantee contributions required to be paid under the law and the actual contributions made. Last week, they sent out nudge emails, letters and calls to 7000 identified employers who have either paid super guarantee late to their employees or have not paid the right amount. Check it through myGov.
Keep your own pay records, every single one going back years
Stephen Clibborn from the University of Sydney does a lot of work with international students and other low-paid workers. He'd like to see some really simplified advice for workers on what their rights and entitlements are. But he says record-keeping is key, particularly if you are paid in cash. That gives you evidence if you have to take it to the Fair Work Ombudsman or a community legal centre. He even suggests taking photos of yourself when you start work and leave work, making sure the photo is date- and time-stamped.
Join a union
Everyone I spoke to suggested joining a union. They are not always perfect (and as it turns out, neither are employers) but it's better than trying to do this stuff by yourself.
Speaking of the Fair Work Ombudsman (totally overworked and underfunded when you consider what's been happening in the sector), it has a whole bunch of resources, some of which are easier to understand than others. There's a pay calculator and a way to find your award. Also, there's a site where you can dob in a wage thief (OK, that's not how they put it). It also makes it very very clear that if you are punished for exercising a workplace right, it's your employer that's the problem. Not you. You can get help.
Thinking about how clever these companies are, how agile and forward-thinking, I struggle to understand how they make these errors. The Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker isn't quite as kind. It is more than carelessness, and it now looks as if employers care more about the interests of their shareholders than their staff.
Staff are meant to be the biggest asset in these companies, but always turn out to be a low priority.
- Jenna Price is an academic at the University of Technology Sydney and a regular columnist.