PayCheck Plus is our online application that helps you automatically calculate pay rates under modern awards including allowances, overtime and penalty rates.

PayCheck Plus allows you to work out multiple pay rates for different staff, and even entire weekly shifts. It will automatically calculate the transitional provisions that may be in your modern award.

Watch how to use PayCheck Plus

We recommend you watch one of our two short instructional videos to help you use PayCheck Plus. They are available on the PayCheck Plus page, and in our multimedia centre.

How does PayCheck Plus work?

PayCheck Plus is broken up into two parts:

1. Check my pay – for working out single pay rates
2. Check my payroll – for working out multiple pay rates for different staff

Check my pay

The ‘Check my pay’ option in the tool has been designed for you to search by job title and calculate rates of pay for an individual classification

Check my payroll

The ‘Check my payroll’ pathway is more advanced and has been designed to provide you with the ability to match and calculate rates for multiple classifications. There is no limit on the number of staff that you can calculate pay rates for.

PayCheck Plus has replaced and improved on our old pay tools PayCheck and Payroll Check.These tools have been taken off the site since the launch of PayCheck Plus.

Source:  Fair Work Ombudsman

When the new uniform workplace health and safety (OH&S) laws come into effect on 1 January 2012, employers must be aware of their revised obligations for ensuring safety of workers even when they’re off-site.

Under the proposed model OH&S laws – due to be uniformly adopted by the workplace relations ministers of Australian states and territories – an employer’s statutory health and safety duties will have much broader operation when work is performed at a worker’s home.

Currently, most OH&S laws have legally confined the duty of care to workplaces under the employer’s management and control. However, the new model laws will include a clause which extends the statutory duty of care for health and safety, ‘as is reasonably practicable’, to any area where work activities are carried out.

Under the new model laws, the definition of a workplace has been reviewed to include a place where work is carried out from time to time. Therefore, according to the revised definition, if an employee occasionally works from home, their home may be considered a place of work.

Charles Power, partner and accredited specialist workplace relations at Holding Redlich lawyers, said that while a worker’s workplace may include their home, OH&S laws do not require the employer to act on health or safety hazards or risks unless it is reasonably practicable for the employer to do so.

Power said that determining whether it is ‘reasonably practicable’ for an employer to uphold OH&S standards in an employee’s home depends on:

• the probability that the hazard or risk will harm the worker;
• the degree of harm that might result;
• what the employer knows or ought reasonably to know about the hazard or risk and the ways of eliminating or minimising the risk;
• the availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk;
• the cost associated with available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

Power said it is important that these steps are reviewed to ensure that they also discharge obligations under the proposed OH&S laws.

Additional information on the model laws can be accessed on Worksafe, a national OH&S advisory and information provider to Australian companies

Source: HCA Mag

Recent conversations with employers made me realise many are flying blind when it comes to current employment legislation. Although there’s a lot of information available online, it’s not always easy to find.

Now there’s an easier way…

To make it easy for you to find the information you need to comply with employment law I’ve gathered the basics together in this blog post. When you click on each item, you will find the relevant downloadable fact sheets.

You’ll have all the information at your fingertips if you bookmark this post for future reference.

In Australia, the National Employment Standards are set out in the Fair Work Act 2009 and comprise 10 minimum standards of employment. In summary, the NES cover the following minimum entitlements:

1. Maximum weekly hours of work – 38 hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
2. Requests for flexible working arrangements – allows parents or carers of a child under school age or of a child under 18 with a disability, to request a change in working arrangements to assist with the child’s care.
3. Parental leave and related entitlements – up to 12 months unpaid leave for every employee, plus a right to request an additional 12 months unpaid leave, and other forms of maternity, paternity and adoption related leave.
4. Annual leave – 4 weeks paid leave per year, plus an additional week for certain shift workers.
5. Personal / carer’s leave and compassionate leave – 10 days paid personal / carer’s leave, two days unpaid carer’s leave as required, and two days compassionate leave (unpaid for casuals) as required.
6. Community service leave – unpaid leave for voluntary emergency activities and leave for jury service, with an entitlement to be paid for up to 10 days for jury service.
7. Long service leave – a transitional entitlement for employees who had certain LSL entitlements before 1/1/10 pending the development of a uniform national long service leave standard.
8. Public holidays – a paid day off on a public holiday, except where reasonably requested to work.
9. Notice of termination and redundancy pay – up to 4 weeks notice of termination (5 weeks if the employee is over 45 and has at least 2 years of continuous service) and up to 16 weeks redundancy pay, both based on length of service.
10. Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement – employers must provide this statement to all new employees. It contains information about the NES, modern awards, agreement-making, the right to freedom of association, termination of employment, individual flexibility arrangements, right of entry, transfer of business, and the respective roles of Fair Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Source: Balance at Work

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that as the owner of a small business, at some point you will have to go through the tricky process of firing an employee (or two!).

Depending on the individual employee and situation, it can be very tempting to simply hand them their coat and tell them they’re fired, but in Australia there are particular laws you have to adhere to so you don’t get stung by costly court cases.

Here are some important tips for Australian small businesses that may be considered if you’re toying with the idea of letting an employee go.

Try To Improve Before You Remove!

One of the main reasons small businesses replace staff is poor performance. However, in most cases it is much more cost effective to invest a little time attempting to improve the output of your current employee.

Let’s have a look at where a business will spend money when replacing a member of staff.

Recruitment Advertising – In order to generate enough interest in your open position you will need to advertise in a number of places. Think:

●     Newspaper ads

●     Online ads

●     Industry specific forums

●     Radio

●     TV

Depending where you advertise you get a better or worse response. Often ads work better in industry specific job boards or forums as your ideal candidates will already hang out in those places. Whilst there may be many people out of work, how many of them would be suited to your business? You may have to sift through dozens of resumes before you find even a couple of potential candidates.

There will be a number of costs incurred by placing these adverts in newspapers, on job boards, and of course on the Internet.

Training Expenses – Your new staff member will need to be trained, and the cost of that training could be quite substantial, depending on your business. Will they need to perform any form of residential training? How much will that cost? Do you need to call in a specialist trainer?

In cases where the new employee can be trained in house you need to consider the costs incurred through lack of productivity, and the delays caused by someone having to leave their duties to someone else whilst they do the training.

Quitters – It isn’t unusual (although very annoying), for you to hire someone for a position only for them to decide after a few days the job is “not for them.” That means you now have to go through the whole recruitment process again, and that means more costs

As you can see, replacing someone can be a very expensive and frustrating job. It can often be far easier to retrain, or to spend more time with your existing under-performing member of staff. Is it possible that there is something going on in their personal life that is affecting their work? Maybe there is something going on internally within the business that you are not aware of that’s bothering them? It may be that they just need more training.

Try this first before you hand them their “see you later” cards and you could save yourself a great deal of time and hassle.

Have You Gone Through The Correct Procedures

If you are going to fire a member of staff because of poor performance, or any other misdemeanour such as poor time keeping, poor relationship management, etc., then ensure you have gone through all the correct disciplinary protocol before you relieve them of their duties.

You have to be able to prove to the Fair Work Ombudsman that you have given the employee the required amount of verbal and written warnings, and that they’ve had the chance to respond or appeal along with a witness of their choice.

Even if you have sacked them for a legitimate reason you have to follow procedure or you may face a hefty fine. Our courts are busy handling cases where employees receive compensation for “wrongful dismissal.” In fact quite recently a company in Sydney had to pay out $10,000 in damages to someone they fired by text message!

Make Sure You Give Them What They Are Entitled To

Another mistake small business owners can make when firing someone is handing them the wrong amount of notice. Make sure you know exactly what the staff member is owed, and that means looking at required notice periods, along with holiday entitlements. There are different laws for different industries. To make sure you get things right you should visit the FWA website. There you can check what the rules are for your business.

Mistakes in this area can prove very expensive as failure to adhere to the rules is illegal, and can land you in a lot of hot water. If you are unsure of something then get advice from a lawyer!

Remember, Your Staff Are Human Too

I don’t think anyone in business really enjoys the process of firing a member of staff. However, more important than anything is to remember you are dealing with a human being. Someone who may or may not be expecting to lose their job.

It could be someone with bills to pay, and a family to feed. That doesn’t mean you should feel guilty and hang on to everyone, regardless of whether they are performing or not, but it means you should think very carefully about the decision to let them go. You must also remain sensitive when you deliver the news.

Firing someone by text message or email is very impersonal and insensitive. Take the time to sit down with them and to explain your decision.

Explain the reasons behind your decision, and see if there is any advice you can offer which may benefit them in their future employment. Are there any particular weaknesses they could work on so they get on better with their next job? They will not only appreciate your time and effort, but they will also be more likely to leave amicably without any bad feeling.

If you have taken the time to retrain a member of staff, put in the effort helping them to do their job better, and have let them go in a gentle and respectful way, then nobody will have anything to hold against you legally or morally. You will also have done your duty as a fair and decent employer.

This article was written by Timothy Ng. You can read more of his work at http://www.creditcardfinder.com.au/ where he has a number of comprehensive guides including this one on using credit cards for small business expenses.

The Fair Work Ombudsman is the industrial relations watchdog which has the task of ensuring workers don’t get underpaid, over-worked or generally ripped off. If you never hear from them in your business life, that’s a very good thing.

If you want to make sure that you don’t get a knock on the door from the Ombudsman, it’s crucial to make sure that your payroll function knows exactly what it is doing, and it’s doing everything right.

For example, you must make sure you do the following:

• If you’ve got staff that work under an award, make sure they are receiving all their entitlements.
• Ensure you get any loadings or overtime rates correct at all times. This is an area that creates a lot of work for the Ombudsman.
• Get leave entitlements correct.

It’s crucial to remember that if you get one interpretation of a contact or award clause wrong, the mistake is often magnified by the number of workers you have. The bigger the team, the bigger the mistake.

The Ombudsman’s website has specific information for employers in the retail, cleaning, clerical, hair and beauty, security and horticulture industries.

There are also best-practise guides that employers can use for hiring, managing and dismissing workers.

This is crucial info to get across, so get it done – today!

Source:  Start Up Smart

From January 1, 2010, a new National Employment Standard will become law in Australia. The standard gives some employees the formal right to request (r2r) some form of flexibility in their work (e.g. part time hours, flexible hours, work from home, etc.). Like many laws it is complex. The law doesn’t apply to every situation. Nor does it guarantee that a request will be granted – just that it will get a hearing. Nevertheless, the fact that flexibility is formally on the agenda of national employment laws is a big step forward.

For full coverage of the laws and their implications for both employers and employees, we highly recommend you check out an excellent website, www.workplaceflexibility.com.au, that has been set up by Aequus Partners. The site includes a very thorough explanatory article, a portal page dedicated to the new laws and a separate toolkit for managers.

Workplace relations may be perceived as a dull subject, but Leah Gibbs has found a reason to be excited about the new National Employment Standards which become law in a matter of weeks.

The Global Financial Crisis, death and destruction from natural disasters in countries neighbouring Australia and debate over the proposed Emissions Trading System have been dominating our national media.

So it’s understandable how major changes to the national workplace relations system which will be introduced across Australia on January 1, 2010 seem to have been overlooked.

While it may fail to grab headlines, the ten new National Employment Standards are essential information for employers and employees because they will impact some key entitlements, procedures and responsibilities in the workplace.

The National Employment Standards will set out:

• maximum weekly hours,
• requests for flexible working arrangements,
• parental leave,
• annual leave,
• personal, carer’s and compassionate leave,
• community service leave,
• long service leave,
• public holidays,
• notice of termination, and
• redundancy pay.

For employees earning under $100,000 a year, the Standards will be complemented by Modern Awards which have been tailored to the needs of particular industries or occupations. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission started award modernisation in April last year.

The National Employment Standards – and Modern Awards which will be activated the same day – are part of the Fair Work Act 2009. The Act came into force on July 1 in the first stage of the new national workplace relations system. It also involves the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman and Fair Work divisions of the Federal Court and Federal Magistrates Court and replaces that which operated under the Workplace Relations Act 1996.

The exciting news is that an employee’s right to request flexible working arrangements will become law.

Juliet Bourke of Sydney management consultancy Aequus Partners sees it as “a golden opportunity. For years Australian employees have talked about the need for greater work/life balance and employers have resisted by raising concerns about whether flexible work practices might hamper productivity and performance,” she said. “From January 1 we will have access to a National Employment Standard to help resolve these tensions in a practical way.”

The ‘right to request flexibility’ standard would give permanent or long-term casual employees the right to ask an employer to change their work arrangements to enable them to care for their children under school age or disabled children aged under 18. This could include, for example, working from home or starting work an hour earlier twice a week and leaving the workplace two hours earlier another day. Employers would be required to respond, in writing, to all requests within 21 days. An employer would only be able to reject an employee’s request on ‘reasonable business grounds’.

Australian Bureau Statistics figures released last month show there are over one and a half million two-parent families with children in Australia, with most of these families having both parents working. In 80 per cent of these families, at least one of the parents said they were often or always pressed for time trying to balance between work and family.

Mother-of-two, Michelle Burn, was working for a communications company in Sydney’s northern suburbs when she first broached the subject of flexible work arrangements.

“I had returned to work after the birth of my first son but asked if I could compress my 38 hour week into four days so I could be at home an extra day,” she said. “No one had actually made such a request before but being able to do it really meant a lot to me. I think it’s a step forward to make it a right of employees to be able to request changes to work arrangements.”

However, Ms Bourke is concerned that the opportunities for parents to access flexible work arrangements could be lost because of a lack of awareness about the new National Employment Standard.

A survey of more than 500 human resources, diversity and law practitioners conducted in September by Aequus Partners and CCH Australia, revealed found that more than 80 per cent believe employees and managers within their organisations have little or no knowledge of how to request flexibility or respond to applications.

Ms Bourke said a similar workplace flexibility scheme introduced to Britain in 2003 has proven successful for employers and employees.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister, Julia Gillard, believes Australia’s new system also had the balance right between the needs of employers and employees. “A balance that will allow us to become more competitive and more prosperous without taking away the workplace rights and guaranteed minimum standards we’ve historically enjoyed,” she told the National Press Club in September.

Workplace relations changes – brief overview

The Fair Work Act 2009 came into force on July 1 in the first stage of the Rudd Government’s new national workplace relations system.

The system also involves the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman and Fair Work divisions of the Federal Court and Federal Magistrates Court and replaces that which operated under the Workplace Relations Act 1996.

Key elements of the new system are:

• a legislated safety net of 10 National Employment Standards
• new modern awards
• revised enterprise bargaining arrangements
• streamlined protections dealing with workplace and industrial rights, including protection against discrimination and unfair dismissal
• two new organisations to regulate the system:
• Fair Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman.
• The new system covers the majority of workplaces in Australia and started on July 1 this year when most of the key elements were enacted. The two remaining ones – the National Employment Standards and modern awards – will start on January 1 next year.

The new independent body, Fair Work Australia, will be the national workplace relations tribunal and Four Australian Government agencies – the Australian Industrial Relations Tribunal, Australian Industrial Registry, Australian Fair Pay Commission and Australian Fair Pay Commission secretariat will cease to exist.

The Workplace Authority will not exist from January 31 next year.

The Fair Work Ombudsman replaced the Workplace Ombudsman and took on the general advisory function of the Workplace Authority on July 1 this year.

The Office of the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate will replace the Australian Building and Construction Commission on February 1, 2010.

For more information call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 or visit the Fair Work Australia website, www.fwa.gov.au

Sources

• Australian Government Departmentof Education, Employment and Workplace Relations -
• Fair Work online – http://www.fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Australia website – http://www.fwa.gov.au
• Australian Industrial Relations Commission website – http://www.airc.gov.au
• Employment and workplace relations services for Australians – http://www.workplace.gov.au
• Australian Bureau of Statistics – http://www.abs.gov.au
• Aequus Partners and CCH Australia survey