Master Painters Australia
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Master Painters Australia |
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Small Changes can cost Big Dollars
The Association handles many cases of members who have changed the Award conditions to more suit there own companies needs. All too often however these changes have not been approved by the Office of the Employment Advocate or the Australia Industrial Relations Commission.
If a company wishes to change some allowance or changes to RDO etc they must be approved by either of these bodies to become legal changes. Any change that is made to an award without approval will not have effect, even if the worker has signed an agreement to that effect.
An example of a recent case is as follows. A member had an employee working for his company for approximately 4 ½ years. At the employees commencement the employee requested he did not require Rostered Days Off and would be happier to work a 40 hour week and be paid as such.
This was fine until the employer and the employee had a falling out which eventually resulted in the employee leaving. Some 5 months later the employer received a request for unpaid wages from the former employee (keep in mind an employee can make a wage claim up to six years from the last day of employment). The wage request went something like this. All Rostered Days Off to be paid at double time and a half. When an employee works a rostered day off it is treated the same as a public holiday, that is double time and a half. Over the period of 4 ½ years this works out to be 58.5 days at double time and a half. 58.5 RDO’s x double time and a half = 146.25 days
146.25 days x 7.6 hours per day = 1111.50 hours
1111.50 hours x $17.64 hourly award rate = $19,606.86
The other part of the wage claim relates to the travel allowance as prescribed in the National Building and Construction Industry Award. The employee was provided a company vehicle and fuel card for three years of his employment as such the employer stopped paying travel allowance of $13.80 per day. As the award states an employee is entitled to travel allowance if they have to make there own way to work he was once again entitled to three years of travel allowance at $15.40 per day even though he was provided with a company vehicle. The only way an employer does not have to pay travel allowance is when the employee is picked up and dropped of at there place of residence.
200 working days per year x 3.5 years = 700
700 days x 15.40 per day travel = $10,780.00
As you can see from the above it does not take much to build up to quite a large amount. Had this employer changed other sections of the award it could have been far worse.
If you are negotiating with a new employee of have current employees and you have changed the award to suit your company make sure you have the changes approved by the WorkPlace Authority or the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The association also regularly runs courses on employment and sub contracting. The association has helped hundreds of its members successfully negotiate changes to the award. For further information please call Lachlan on 02 9758 8877. |
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