Fair Work Agency

And one more in a single line because it quietly changes the arithmetic on everything else.

The Fair Work Agency has now had its first conviction back in July and the government is consulting on giving it the job of enforcing holiday pay.

So, nobody actually checks is no longer true.

For anyone who has been doing this properly all along, that's good news.

Let me answer the easiest question first.

So if an employee has their shift cancelled at short notice and their employer doesn't pay them what they're owed, then the Fair Work Agency that we've discussed previously on on former podcast show will enforce that.

And we expect it will be able to issue a notice of underpayment similar with national minimum wage on the employer, which then they have to pay to the employee.

Plus the employer in those circumstances will receive a penalty.

Although if you pay within the first 14 days, the penalty is halved.

And the other point is that the Fair Work Agency will be able to recover unpaid sums owed to a worker for up to six years.

Okay.

But the Fair Work Agency won't get involved in deciding whether, for example, notice is reasonable or whether a worker qualifies for guaranteed hours.

You know, collective redundancy changes that don't affect most recruiters.

However, the new Fair Work Agency... is, for me, quite a big deal.

And, you know, obviously it's combining the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, elements of HMRC on pay and tax, and what used to be the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate.

But most importantly...

It does to a degree.

I had... sort of anecdotally heard about an increase in employment agency standards inspections prior to April whilst they still were a standalone body.

And actually when they formed with the other entities you've mentioned with effect from the 7th of April to create this new almost sort of super regulator called the Fair Work Agency, very much the position, the statement that was put out by the Fair Work Agency was you know, we take this job seriously, but we are going to need some time to bring these different governmental bodies together, you know, work out what our strategy is, work out, you know, how we're going to allocate our resources.

And I, for one, was not really anticipating any, you know, meaningful action from them probably until next year.

If every employee in your organisation earns above the national minimum wage, then you're compliant, right? Not necessarily.

Salary sacrifice, uniforms, travel time, excess hours and deductions, all of these things can create minimum wage problems, but a standard payroll process may not immediately And with the Fair Work Agency now responsible for national minimum wage enforcement, payroll leaders cannot afford to discover these problems after an investigation begins.

And that's what we're going to be getting into in today's episode of The Payroll Podcast.

So if you're new to the show, welcome.

then the alarm bells go and it gets everyone's attention.

But is the data governance there? Do they even know where their six years' worth of data is to even start getting that in a row? seen clients have got filing cabinets, multiple different systems, toupees, haven't got access to information, sitting with head office that's somewhere else in the world, multiple different scenarios.

One of the things that one of our clients, one of our early adopter clients that joined, he actually was like, I feel like I'm ahead of the curve because I'm getting all of this done before the Fair Work Agency even launches, which means that I've got my decks in a row so that actually if they chapter my door, I can push a button and I can show I'm compliant.

That's where the push the button thing, we're trying to make that really easy so that you don't have to go to all the effort.

Yeah, there's quite a few payroll changes, some really key ones that are coming up.

There's the Fair Work Agency, which has been given more powers.

And I think employers especially need to be aware of the risks that if they're non-compliant with some of the regulations that it could be picked up.

And also the changes in the way people report their PBIQ, so P11D information, it's going to be payrolled as of April next year.

tell

people? What is the one thing you tell people when it comes to payroll?

The importance is keeping your records accurate with this new Fair Work agency that's coming or going to be enforced.

It's already in place, but it's going to be enforced more.