Complying with Fair Work’s Award rules is crucial for any organisation. Awards dictate the pay and conditions that millions of Australian workers receive. If you don’t follow these rules, you could underpay your employees, and be exposed to large backpay claims and fines.

There are a number of common issues that can arise in relation to workplace award compliance, including failure to pay minimum wages or provide adequate leave entitlements, lack of transparency in the award classification system, and non-compliance with other requirements prescribed by labor laws. Other common problems include employers misclassifying employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying them benefits and protections to which they are legally entitled, or misusing penalty rates in order to cut labor costs.

Some of the most common causes of award compliance issues include poor record keeping practices and lack of knowledge about complex work award regulations among employers. In addition, there may be a bias towards certain employees (e.g., those who are more vocal or senior) when it comes to enforcing the requirements of awards, which can result in unequal treatment of workers. Finally, some employers may attempt to use various types of workplace discrimination in order to bypass award regulations and avoid paying employees fair wages or providing them with adequate working conditions.

Modern Awards are the pay rules for workers in specific industries. They are set by the Fair Work Commission, and typically are for lower-paid industries, or industries that employ large numbers of people. Remember, if you employ someone covered by an Award, the Award rates apply, not the minimum wage rules. 

Tanda has over 30 individually managed Awards, including Awards for major industries in Australia, like the Hospitality Industry Award (HIGA), General Retail Industry Award (GRIA),  Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award (SCHADS), Restaurant Industry Award (RIA), Aged Care Award, Pharmacy Award and Children’s Services Award. If you’re looking to clarify our award coverage, get in touch and we can go through our complete suite of Awards.

An Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) is a deal that a business makes with a union that sets the pay and conditions for their workers, instead of an Award. Provided that the deal doesn’t undercut the pay and conditions of the Award, it will apply.

Yes, Tanda can handle Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. If you get in touch with us, we’re happy to help implement the conditions of your EBA into Tanda. We deal with a large number of clients with specific EBA’s that we’ve implemented into Tanda.

Tanda closely follows the Fair Work Commission’s wage rulings and implements these into our Award Interpreter. This means that unlike other Workforce Management Software, pay rates are automatically updated after they change, and you don’t have to do a thing. Likewise, employees are automatically moved to their new relevant pay rate on their birthday, if it changes their classification.

Every year, the Fair Work Commission, a Federal Government body, will sit down and determine the pay rates for different Industrial Awards. These rulings occur throughout the year. The Commission is made up of people appointed by the Government. It takes submissions from economists, unions, and business groups about pay rates. Unions will typically ask for large pay increases, and businesses will ask for lower or no increase. Lately, the Commission has picked the middle ground between these groups.