The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has found that workers have been underpaid to the tune of over $148 million in the 2020-2021 period. This is 20% more than was reported from the previous year. The investigations found that this record breaking amount of unpaid wages and entitlements applied to 69,735 underpaid workers. During this period, the FWC entered into 19 enforceable undertakings with businesses that resulted in $18.7 million in back pay. 17 of these cases related to self-reported non-compliance by corporations.
According to FWC Ombudsman, Sandra Parker, many workers had been underpaid for many years by large corporate entities. In response to this problem, she noted that the Large Corporates Branch had been set up to handle specialised investigations in the corporate sector related to underpayments. She also confirmed that some of the largest Australian companies had self-disclosed workplace law breaches but still needed to give more priority to investing in payroll and workplace relations expertise and systems. This she said would help ensure they were paying workers their full legal entitlements.
The FWC has been busy this past year, having resolved 18,696 workplace disputes and attracted 22.4 million visits to its website. Its staff has also engaged in over 423,000 online and phone enquiries. 2021 also looks set to give FWC more work as several cases of underpayment have hit the headlines.
This includes a case from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) that has reported that RMIT University has been underpaying its casual academics for the last 8 years. According to NTEU’s Victorian assistant secretary, Sarah Roberts, these workers had been paid at the rate applicable for marking students work rather than the academic judgement pay rate that is higher by an estimated $20 an hour.
Even smaller businesses are being hit with underpayment penalties, as was seen in the case of Simon John Hickey who trades as Smerff Electrical. The Brisbane sole trader was found to have breached an FWC order to pay $11,400 in compensation to a worker the commission had found to have been unfairly dismissed and underpaid in terms of wages and superannuation. After failing in his appeal against the order, Hickey was ordered to pay a compensation of $16,904.34 in unpaid wages and $482.93 in superannuation plus interest. He was further fined $30,000 in penalties for his breaches of the Fair Work Act.
Ombudsman Parker is encouraging anyone with concerns about their workplace rights or obligations to get in touch with the FWC for free advice and assistance.
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