Be wary of peak season for underpayments, union says

One hour of underpayments in penalty rates over the Christmas and New Year period could add up to more than $30 million in lost wages, Unions NSW’s findings revealed.

Over December and January, a network of organisers, delegates, and union leaders in NSW will be on high alert following concerns about employers not providing workers their entitlements during the summer holiday period.

Avoiding payroll scrutiny

Thomas Costa, assistant secretary of Unions NSW, urged workers to not just know their rights, but enforce them.

“Every year we see employers try to shave a little off public holiday pay or quietly count shutdown days as annual leave,” Costa said. He emphasised that workers should not “accept” these mistakes, but to “check everything”.

Wage theft is not an accident. Costa said: “We’ve seen far too many examples of big businesses underpaying staff by the millions. Workers should not be footing the bill.”

Lessons to learn

He said that although many workers assume payroll systems are always correct, Costa pointed to large, high-profile underpayment scandals that have occurred across corporate Australia, which have “disproven” this assumption.

Costa said supermarkets that failed to record overtime, universities that have misclassified casuals, and hospitality corporations that fail to provide entitled penalty rates are among the guilty parties.

“The pattern is clear – wage theft is happening in every corner of the economy, and workers cannot afford to lose a cent,” Costa said.

Staying on top the shutdown period

“Workers are fed up with being taken advantage of during peak season,” he highlighted.

He noted that while employers can request workers to work on a public holiday, the request must be “reasonable”, and workers can refuse if workers have reasonable grounds.

In addition, he said that workers who do not have enough annual leave to cover the forced shutdown have options such as leave in advance, time in lieu, or rostered days off.