The ABC article mentions two different issues. Are any of us well enough informed at this point in time to comment with any certainty. There are allegations, but few facts to rely upon.
One is an allegation of under payment of employees. There is no substantive evidence presented by the ABC to deny or support this claim.
during her time at the company, she formed the view that One Stop Warehouse “underpaid its staff and did not pay penalty rates or overtime rates, nor did it pay the basic award rate of pay”.
The second is a claim by the ex employee for compensation following voluntary termination of employment. This is subject to a future court hearing.
In dismissing the company’s application, Justice Michael Jarrett decided to let the case go ahead, noting: “I cannot be satisfied that her claim generally has no reasonable prospects of success.”
We may never know the full facts, if the parties settle, as they often do out of court at the eleventh hour. Until then and beyond the reputations of the ex employee and business are both in doubt.
It’s not just migrant workers that get ripped off. My first job when I moved to Tamworth was in hospitality for a company owned by a well-connected family in the town (which I found out too late). Whilst I was working there I contacted Fair Work regarding the employment agreement and the person I spoke to said it “looked a bit dodgy” but they couldn’t do anything about it unless a majority of workers at the company contacted Fair Work to get the agreement struck down. The chances of getting that to happen in a regional town where the family that owns the business is well known and connected is Buckleys & none.
I then contacted Fair Work again about a month later, this time on the basis that I was being paid under the award rates, and was told someone would look into it. 2 months later I contacted them again and got the same response. A month after that I contacted them and complained that nothing seemed to be happening regarding my complaint, and their answer was that as I lived in a regional area it could take a long time for any investigation to happen as they do not have staff up here.
I ended up resigning from the job a couple of years ago, still waiting for Fair Work to do anything, and have not worked in Tamworth since. I’m having to learn a new skill set as I have no chance of getting work in my old field of hospitality due to everyone in the local network knowing the family I used to work for. One of the bad things about living in a rural/regional area.
My wife was the casual staffing manager at the Australian Jockey Club for over a decade (and then the Australian Turf Club after the merge). Due to the nature of the business there was a huge range of awards she had to deal with - different job classifications, grandfathered awards, etc. At carnival times across the 4 racecourses she had to do the weekly pay for thousands of staff. There was the occasional underpayment when wrong hours were put down and those matters were fixed within a day or two. Those were few and far between though, and I was working there for those years so know it to be true, I’m going off what the staff told me (no, we weren’t married then).
Bottom line is, if you can’t pay your staff what they are entitled to then that’s not the award system, that’s a failure of your business and you should not have your doors open. If you can’t work out how to pay your staff what they are entitled to, you have no right to employ staff in the first place! Too often you see the apologist messaging along the lines of “It’s too hard to pay my staff the right rate” or “How was I supposed to know they were entitled to penalties for working a 16 hour shift?”
If I steal from my employer, even if it’s $20 out of the till, police get called and I get charged, and a court date resulting in a criminal record and possible jail time.
If my employer steals from me and the other workers, even if it’s millions out of our pay, they get to say “I’m sorry”, pay the money back, and continue in business - no police, no court case, no jail time. A pissant fine might be issued that the business laughs at, and they continue on. No criminal record, no jail time. The fines might be starting to get bigger in recent years, but they are fines to the business, not the owners or managers. Even if the business has to close the owners and managers walk away to start again and do it somewhere else, as there are no consequences for them.
There is a difference when affected workers are doing well defined work. In many instances, especially when they are highly skilled it gets arguable what their job is regarding award descriptions.
I am not disagreeing that many of the businesses being outed have no credible defence, but some do. I have witnessed jobs being defined, matched to an award using ‘expert consultants’, staff hired and regularly paid, but after years a union or worker or inspector questions if the award is the right one, and makes accusations and sometimes charges against the business.
There are always genuine cases, but I refer to what seems to be a common understanding that an acceptable cafe worker’s wage is between $3 and $5 less than the minimum legal wage, not any award. I believe this is probably rife in regional Australia especially, because of the reasons given by the previous writer. If we are not prepared to pay 20c extra for a coffee and $1 extra for a meal to keep the businesses operating, we are part of the problem. My simple solution is a sticker for cafes to display which reads I PAY THE LEGAL WAGE. If we want a democracy, we
must not accept that people with more money also have more power.
This topic extends beyond the bread and butter issues of Choice, but I beg to differ. Readers might be interested in a book by the eminent US economist and Secretary for Labor, Robert Reich: Saving Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few. We all have a role in shaping decisions, whether we choose to exercise it or not, which is why I support Choice.
Quite familiar with him and his views, as well as a fan. Unfortunately politics is what it is and its purpose is rarely more than to ‘serve themselves’. The US capitalist system was lost after Eisenhower and evolved into what it is today beginning with Reagan. It took a few years but John Howard did a pretty fast catch up for much of it. People vote for ‘that’
I’m empathetic in that our political choices are often reduced to the least unwanted of those seeking election.
Social and consumer outcomes are often related as influenced by political thinking. The influence of political thought is worthy of acknowledgement.
We have the system that we have because
This includes most likely a large proportion of the Choice membership if they are representative of the Australian population.
Choice for the consumer delivers a positive experience that is independent of political influence or favour. That’s my choice. Hopefully we can keep doing it.
Whether the ‘sham contracting’ claim succeeds remains to be seen.
For consumers a successful claim may see an increase in industry costs. Always passed on to the consumer in the end.
For the independent contractors involved in the claim success may open another world of grief with the ATO. Running your own business as a Sole Trader, Partnership or Trustee Pty Ltd needs to meet specific ATO pre-requisites. The independent contractor is attesting to the ATO they are compliant with each tax return.
No wage theft. Although the circumstances of the industry restructuring and market conditions arguably have enabled the current circumstances to put pressure on the independent contractors, rates and conditions.
It may have been a choice those made redundant years previously may have made differently given hindsight.
An article regarding the corrupt practices in farm labour hire in Australia.
Whilst Fair Work Australia claims to be doing something about it, they appear to be just another toothless tiger like the ACCC, ASIC and ARPA most of the time.
Had a friend who did some Strawberry picking, they were paid on units picked. Their first few weeks calculated rate of pay was $0.60 per hour. They had to pay accommodation fees for the on farm accommodation so they actually had to put money in rather than drawing a wage. They did pick up speed but it was still a losing game in the money department. A person who complained about the rate of pay was “sacked”, anyone who spoke out about the rate of pay or the accom fees lost their jobs post haste.
At $0.60 per hour, no worries about exceeding their requirements, especially after being cheated for “accomodation”, “meals” and “transport” costs.
High time the Government took a serious stance on these bottom-feeding grubs exploiting casual farm workers.
If farmers, contractors, organisors and others are not prepared to abide by the laws, then they fully deserve to see their unharvested produce rotting in their fields.
Hopefully there will be a positive outcome unless the FWO is actually another case of a four letter word like their other contemporaries but with a letter short of a picnic.
