Earlier this week the furniture chain Super-A-Mart was ordered by the Fair Work Ombudsman to pay $1.3 million in back pay to about 900 workers who were underpaid for work undertaken between March 2006 and March 2010.
What’s particularly interesting here is how the workers were underpaid.
The Fair Work Ombudsman found that stores were requiring staff to start work earlier than they were rostered in order to prepare locations for opening and closing. However, the company did not pay them for this time.
In addition, the company failed to pay workers for attending staff meetings and information sessions outside their rostered shifts.
There is an important lesson here – check your pay obligations and make sure that you are meeting them.
While not all businesses would be required to make specific payments for work outside of business hours, in sectors such as retail and hospitality this is essential.
You must know these rules and stick to them. Otherwise you’ll end up facing the Ombudsmen and ripping off the most important people in your business – your staff.
Get it done – today!
