4 January 2007
On 13 December 2006 the Federal Government amended the Workplace Relations Regulations 2006 (“the Regulations”) to, amongst other things, make it easier for employers to comply with employee record keeping and payslip requirements.
Two sets of amending Regulations were made, with the majority of changes introduced taking effect from 15 December. However, some changes have retrospective effect to 27 March 2006.
Federal system employers will need to have their affairs in order by 27 March 2007, as that is when the Government’s grace period with respect to complying with the record keeping requirements ceases. After 27 March 2007 penalties will apply for non-compliance with record keeping and pay slip requirements.
What are the changes to record keeping obligations?
The Government has made significant changes to the employee record keeping and pay slip obligations of employers.
With the changes to the Regulations, employers will only have to record the hours worked by an employee where:
the employee works overtime hours and must be paid a penalty rate or loading for those overtime hours (only the overtime hours will need to be recorded);
the employee is a casual or part-time employee who does not work regular hours (all hours worked by the employee must be recorded).
In addition, the amendments to the Regulations:
allow records to be kept in an electronic or paper form;
provide that if an employee is paid an annual salary, the employee’s pay slip must detail that annual salary;
provide that employee records relating to leave must include:
-the accrual of leave;
-any leave taken by the employee;
-the balance of the employee’s leave entitlement; and
-if an employee elects to forgo an amount of leave, a copy of the employee’s written election to forgo the amount of leave and details of the payment of the leave forgone by the employee;
clarify that employers must keep records of:
-gross and net amounts paid to the employee; and
-details of any deductions.
What requirements have been removed?
As a result of the amendments, the Government has removed a number of record keeping obligations. Specifically, the amendments to the Regulations have removed the requirements that:
an employee’s payslip contains an hourly rate of pay (if the employee is a salaried employee);
an employee’s “nominal hours” be recorded in their payslip;
an employee’s classification be recorded in the employee’s record and in their payslip;
an employee’s date of birth be recorded in their employee record; and
the industrial instrument applicable to an employee be recorded in the employee’s record.
Further changes
In addition to the amendments outlined above, the Regulations have also been amended to:
provide that following the termination of a preserved State Agreement, the Australian Fair Pay and Condition Standard and any protected preserved conditions (e.g. penalties, annual leave loading etc) will apply to an employee until either an award comes into operation in relation to the employee, or a workplace agreement is made between the employee and their employer;
clarifies that an agreement or contract may allow an employee to take personal leave at half pay to increase their amount of personal leave;
allow employees to purchase an additional amount of personal leave to increase their entitlement to personal leave;
give effect to recent amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) (“the Act”) which allow for the cashing out of personal leave accrued in excess of 15 days;
provide that it is prohibited content for a workplace agreement to provide for the cashing out of personal leave other than in accordance with the Act; and
provide that if an individual commits two or more contraventions of the Regulations in a single act or course of conduct, the contraventions are taken to be a single contravention and will be prosecuted as such.
Following these amendments employers should ensure that they are clear on their employee record keeping and payslip obligations, as they have until 27 March 2007 to get their records in order.
Mark Dunphy and Karl Rozenbergs
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