Weekly round-up: Pay slip wars, high heels are gone, and racial discrimination against employee

In this week’s round-up of HR news, some ugly truths have come out about the jobseeker industry, an airline is allowing its hostesses to ditch the heels, and the Premier League has allegedly breached employment law for acts of racial discrimination.

The pay slip wars

The Guardian has released an article exposing some ugly truths about job providers and the lengths they will go to claim public money when jobseekers find employment. One researcher called the process – supposedly designed to help people enter the workforce or increase their hours – a “crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone”.

People seeking a job must sign up with a private job provider to receive Centrelink benefits, which they can continue to claim if they have work but are earning below a certain threshold. The provider can claim “outcome payments” when their client has completed four, 12, or 26 weeks of employment, regardless of whether the client or the provider actually found the job.

By using pay slips from the client’s employment, these providers get these outcomes, meaning the jobseeker themselves could find the job, but if the provider gets a hold of their pay cheque, they can still claim the outside payment. In 2022–23, providers received $329 million in outcome payments.

Jobseekers, employers and former staff at the providers said the requirement to obtain pay slips has led providers to put unreasonable pressure on clients – who are not obliged to hand over the information – and employers.

In some cases, providers trying to obtain pay slips have forced jobseekers’ Centrelink payments to be suspended. Professor Jo Ingold of the Peter Faber business school at the Australian Catholic University said the system did not work for jobseekers, providers or employees.

“It is … obviously very stressful and horrible for somebody to go through effectively having their payments suspended because they’re not providing information that … it is within their right not to provide. But then the providers desperately scramble to get evidence to meet their claim for the outcome payment. It’s just a crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone,” Ingold said.

Premier League accused of racial discrimination

According to Daily Mail Australia, the Premier League will stand accused of racial discrimination by a former member of its equalities department in court next month. Kay Badu, who formerly worked at the organisation back in 2022, is taking the league to the employment tribunal on the grounds of racial discrimination, victimisation, and harassment following his departure.

The case will begin on 7 May, and by the looks of it, the proceedings will last a couple of days.

The Premier League itself opened an official investigation into allegations of internal racism made by Badu, but the subsequent probe, carried out by an independent barrister, effectively cleared the organisation and its employees of discrimination, which isn’t much of a surprise seeing as it was an internal investigation.

Badu, who obviously disagrees with the findings of the Premier League’s investigation, launched his own legal case with the hopes that the Premier League would face some ramifications for its actions.

Airline is ditching the high heels

According to NL Times, the airline KLM will soon allow employees to wear sneakers while working on flights. The contemporary fashion for air hostesses on the vast majority of airlines is to wear high heels, which can be rather uncomfortable on long-duration flights and also make the job tasks slightly more difficult.

Most female employees may still wear heels, but they will also be allowed to choose sporting shoes from 6 May. The airline said that this will be more comfortable while working and will contribute to the wellbeing of the staff.

KLM said it is responding to the demand for more comfortable work shoes: “Some colleagues who wear pumps would like an alternative. Wearing sneakers under a uniform is becoming increasingly common at airlines and suits the current times.”

A spokesperson for the airline shared that flight hostesses already have the choice in terms of the height of the heels and have, in the past, been advised to wear low heels on board the aircraft. An exception is made for people with foot complaints or other complaints.

The sneakers, however, must fit between the guidelines. Employees are not allowed to wear any type of sneakers. They are only permitted to wear sneakers under pants, and the colour of the uniform determines which colour sneakers they are allowed to wear with it.