By Chris Thomson | posted on April 12, 2018
RANDOM inspections of businesses in Albany, Denmark and Manjimup by the Fair Work Ombudsman have found more than half to be in breach of fair work laws.
Of 147 businesses probed by the Fair Work Ombudsman in central Albany, Centennial Park, Denmark, Lockyer, Orana and Manjimup, 76, or 52 per cent of them, were in breach.
Among the 106 individual contraventions, 50 businesses were not paying workers correctly, while 40 firms breached record keeping and pay slip requirements.
Back payments totalling $47,379 to 147 workers were extracted from 28 Great Southern and South West enterprises.
Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Kristen Hannah said non-compliant firms were “now on notice”, and her agency would follow up to ensure breaches were rectified.
In one matter, inspectors assessed the wage records of a winery and learned three workers were being paid a flat hourly rate below the mini- mum set under the relevant award.
The winery workers received no additional penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work.
Inspectors calculated they were underpaid a total of $8,750.63.
The winery was slapped with a compliance notice and agreed to back pay the workers in full – the largest amount recovered from a single business in the Ombudsman’s sweep of the south of the State.
Ms Hannah said that there are no excuses for such errors.
“All employers in Australia must be aware of their obligations under Australia’s workplace laws,” she stressed.
“They have a responsibility to ensure they are doing the right thing by their workers.”
Inspection of an architectural firm found there were inconsistencies with its overtime records.
The business offered workers time off in lieu for overtime worked, but had not kept records of overtime accrued.
The firm told inspectors it took an informal approach to overtime records because it was a small business with good relationships between staff and management.
The firm was formally cautioned.
The Ombudsman’s report into the breaches revealed businesses belonging to an industry association had a 67 per cent compliance rate, compared to 41 per cent for those that did not, and also stated that firms with 15 or more workers had a 58 per cent compliance rate, while 45 per cent of smaller businesses were fully compliant.
According to the report, the Albany and Manjimup areas were selected for inspection partly because they had the lowest median incomes in Western Australia.
