Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr the
Speaker 2: Order Kerni Whalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Georgia King,
Speaker 4: and joining me as she does agent every single Wednesday,
Speaker 4: is Miss Victoria Divine V.
Speaker 1: How are we Georgia King? I am well, what about you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, good girl. So today we are going to talk
Speaker 4: about employee rights. It is such a common concern in
Speaker 4: the community and it can be very overwhelming when you're
Speaker 4: in the middle of having your rights breached in the workplace.
Speaker 4: But you do have rights, which is what we're going
Speaker 4: to talk about today.
Speaker 1: It's kind of helpful. Yeah, all right, so this episode
Speaker 1: is pretty basic stuff, but there are a lot of
Speaker 1: elements to discuss. Let's be honest. We want to get
Speaker 1: you thinking about your rights and encourage you to check
Speaker 1: out the links that are going to be published with
Speaker 1: this episode to do more digging. If any of this
Speaker 1: has raised concerns for you about you and your workplace,
Speaker 1: which unfortunately, George, I'm seeing it all over TikTok, I'm
Speaker 1: seeing it all over Instagram at the moment, people being like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, my employer doesn't let me xyz and
Speaker 1: it's blowing my mind. And I guess this is where
Speaker 1: this topic has come from, because I'm just going, well,
Speaker 1: people aren't being treated with the respect that they deserve,
Speaker 1: and it's not just respect, it's actually just basic human rights,
Speaker 1: and too many of us just take it as well.
Speaker 1: That's how it works. Like they're the employer, they've got
Speaker 1: the power. No sit down, seas like we are going
Speaker 1: to school you. At the end of this episode, you
Speaker 1: are going to be confident. You are going to be
Speaker 1: telling your boss not to treat you like trash. And
Speaker 1: if your boss isn't treating you like trash, hopefully you
Speaker 1: can learn a few things. So if one of your
Speaker 1: mates is like, all right, well my boss is not
Speaker 1: being kind, you can be like, all right, sit down,
Speaker 1: I got you.
Speaker 4: Let me let me talk, let me tell you. Yes exactly,
Speaker 4: So we're gonna be talking about industry awards and agreements,
Speaker 4: so branuation, oh and s unfair dismissal, the fair work
Speaker 4: Tribunal and so much more.
Speaker 1: What a dream? You guys heard that list and we're like, wow,
Speaker 1: sexy g king tell me more. And honestly, sadly, sometimes
Speaker 1: employers are pretty backwards about coming forwards with your rights
Speaker 1: and they just don't do things that they are legally
Speaker 1: required to. And gee, you and I know that much
Speaker 1: of our community are very early on in their employment journey,
Speaker 1: so it's really easy to get taken advantage of. Sadly,
Speaker 1: did you know that you actually need to be paid
Speaker 1: for meetings? And like, did you ever work in retail?
Speaker 4: G not retail but hosspone?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Did they ever make you come in early? Yeah?
Speaker 4: But pizza party? Oh? Sorry, not early, but that was.
Speaker 1: After we go to the States. Yeah, yeah, no, you
Speaker 1: needed to be paid for that, Nike, If that's a
Speaker 1: work meeting. Come in, you want to come in fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes early before you shift? Am I being paid? No? Well,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't need to be there there.
Speaker 4: Oh I bloody you need some compensation. V. Let's start
Speaker 4: with work conditions. There are rules about what employees get
Speaker 4: at work, such as what hours they work, how often
Speaker 4: they have to take a break, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 4: Where is all of that stuff actually laid out?
Speaker 1: So the rules are in lots of different places, such
Speaker 1: as an award or a registered agreement or even your
Speaker 1: employment contract, and an employee's minimum titlements are set out
Speaker 1: in the National Employment Standards, which is called the NEES
Speaker 1: for short, which is a registered agreement and can provide
Speaker 1: for other entitlements, but those entitlements can't be less than
Speaker 1: what's in the NES. So gee, if you've got an
Speaker 1: employement agreement and it says you get one fifteen minute break,
Speaker 1: but the NES is you get a half hour break,
Speaker 1: you get a half hour break. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: it says in your employment contract that any s is
Speaker 1: the bare minimum. So if I were you and you
Speaker 1: feel like maybe your employment contract is a little bit
Speaker 1: more snug than it should be. I'd check that because
Speaker 1: the reality is that any s is the bare minimum.
Speaker 1: If an award covers the employee, the entitlements can't be
Speaker 1: overall less than the award that exists. Employment contracts also
Speaker 1: can't reduce someone's entitlements under the NES, which is what
Speaker 1: I said before. But I've listed it down, so it's
Speaker 1: just going to harp on about it, and you can
Speaker 1: find employee pay rates or learn more about entitlements. You
Speaker 1: can go to fair Work dot gov dot au obviously
Speaker 1: g the link is going to be in the show notes.
Speaker 4: Obviously. They also have a really good quiz on there
Speaker 4: to bed where you can test your knowledge on common
Speaker 4: employee entitlements, so that like flexible working arrangement, it's it's fine,
Speaker 4: you're gonna love.
Speaker 1: It, no love, You'll get ten out of ten, thank you.
Speaker 1: But I also would prefer to just be treated properly
Speaker 1: not have to do a quiz to see if I
Speaker 1: know what my right.
Speaker 4: Well, if anyone this thing is interested in the quiz,
Speaker 4: it's called the Workplace Basics Quiz, and you'll find feedback
Speaker 4: and links to helpful resources in there. A lot of fun.
Speaker 4: But you mentioned awards earlier.
Speaker 1: I did what is not like a first award or
Speaker 1: a second award or a best like She's on the
Speaker 1: Money TITA Member of the Week, which you clearly own
Speaker 1: and get awarded every single week. But essentially, awards are
Speaker 1: legal documents that outline the minimum pay rates and conditions
Speaker 1: for our type of employment. There are actually heaps of these.
Speaker 1: There are more than one hundred different industry or occupation
Speaker 1: awards that cover most people who work in Australia. And
Speaker 1: again we're going to plug the Fairwork website, but you
Speaker 1: can find yours at fairwork dot gov dot au, forward
Speaker 1: slash employment conditions, forward slash Awards. But I wouldn't type
Speaker 1: that in. I'd just go fair Work Awards, employment conditions
Speaker 1: and like google it and then it all come up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: quick hack. You can actually solve most things by googling it.
Speaker 1: G And spoiler alert, I'm probably going to say fair
Speaker 1: Work about a million times in this episode because they
Speaker 1: are the og for information when it comes to anything
Speaker 1: pertaining to your rights at work. So get ready because
Speaker 1: you're probably going to get sick of it.
Speaker 4: Stunning love it. Let's talk leave entitlements, see annual. That's
Speaker 4: all I can think of at the moment, who gets.
Speaker 1: Again, we can get care is leave. All employees, except
Speaker 1: for casual employees, get paid annual leave, and the entitlement
Speaker 1: to annual leave actually comes from the NES. SO our
Speaker 1: National Employment Standards and Awards, enterprise agreements and other registered
Speaker 1: agreements can't offer less than the ANYS, which I've said before,
Speaker 1: but they can give you more. So that could be
Speaker 1: a nice little spicy bonus. Like if the nes says
Speaker 1: for your job that you get four weeks a year,
Speaker 1: and your boss is like, well, actually we are for five. Well,
Speaker 1: well hurk, that's nice. That's different. That's unusual.
Speaker 4: How much annual leave does an employee usually get?
Speaker 1: So, as a standard for full time and part time employees,
Speaker 1: it's four weeks of annual leave per annum based on
Speaker 1: your ordinary hours of work, and then shift workers they
Speaker 1: might get up to five weeks of annual leave according
Speaker 1: to the NYS per year. Obviously, it's going to change,
Speaker 1: it's going to be different. And even if your employment
Speaker 1: contract says more than that, then great, wham bam, thank
Speaker 1: you ma'am. That's very exciting. But if it's less then
Speaker 1: it's a no for me.
Speaker 4: Okay. There is also a stunning little leave calculator on
Speaker 4: our favorite fairwork website as well. If you are a
Speaker 4: title too, how does and you'll leave actually accumulate?
Speaker 1: Okay, so before I answer that, I also want to
Speaker 1: go back to your little calculator because it sounds really sexy.
Speaker 1: Love a calculator. But you can also find your leave
Speaker 1: entitlements and how much and you'll leave you have on
Speaker 1: your pay sleep, so it should always keep track of that,
Speaker 1: and it will tell you usually in hours not days.
Speaker 1: It might be like, oh, you have four hours of
Speaker 1: annual leave, and you kind of accrue it that way,
Speaker 1: so check that. Then you can cross check it based
Speaker 1: on that calculator. I think is probably the best way
Speaker 1: to do it. But let's go back to your question
Speaker 1: about annual leave and how it accumulates. So and youual
Speaker 1: ly accumulates from literally the first day you have of employment,
Speaker 1: even if you're in a probation period, so you don't
Speaker 1: have to wait to start getting annual leave, and leave
Speaker 1: accumulates gradually during the year, and any unused and you'll
Speaker 1: leave will and should roll over from year to year,
Speaker 1: so your employee can't be like you didn't use it.
Speaker 1: G So we're just going to put it in the
Speaker 1: bin and start again. Yeap illegal not an option, and
Speaker 1: you'll leave accumulates when an employee is on paid leave
Speaker 1: as well, So if you're on paid annual leave and
Speaker 1: paid sick cares leave, you actually still accumulate and you'll
Speaker 1: leave community service leave, including jury duty, which I thought
Speaker 1: I was going to have to do. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: I was going to have to do a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and then I got booted off your sad story. They
Speaker 1: just thought that I would be too emotional about a
Speaker 1: child issue. Oh they're not wrong. Would have been, so
Speaker 1: it was probably a good yeat. And also if you're
Speaker 1: on long service leave, you can accumulate it annually. Doesn't
Speaker 1: accumulate though, when you're on unpaid and you'll leave, yeah,
Speaker 1: because obviously like you're going into the negative. So that
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense to me. Unpaid sick care is leave,
Speaker 1: or parental leave or unpaid family and domestic violent sleeve.
Speaker 1: So anything that's unpaid usually not accumulating any type of
Speaker 1: anual leave, but if you're being paid to be on leave,
Speaker 1: then yes, you are accruing. It is the tel D.
Speaker 4: It's a good way of thinking of it. The sicklyve
Speaker 4: just a quick side note here, you're entitled to ten
Speaker 4: days or something like that per year out does that
Speaker 4: rollover or no?
Speaker 1: It usually is just ten a year and it doesn't
Speaker 1: add up or roll over, And you also don't get
Speaker 1: paid out sick leave when you leave. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of a if you're not well and you need to
Speaker 1: take some time off, we can do that. Some employers
Speaker 1: will be a bit more flexible, and you know, gee,
Speaker 1: if you're really sick, they'll be like, just gone sickly
Speaker 1: if it's fine, or maybe they'll say, okay, well we
Speaker 1: need a doctor's certificate to give you further like it
Speaker 1: kind of is negotiable, but that in the NES is
Speaker 1: the bare minimum on sick leave. Though, say you work
Speaker 1: in retail, I'm a bit jaded here, George, because I
Speaker 1: worked in retail for a very long time and I
Speaker 1: just feel like the manager I was on a little
Speaker 1: bit of a power trip that I didn't understand at
Speaker 1: that point in time. But in hindsight, I'm like, whoa
Speaker 1: victoria you put up with that ill? Your manager cannot
Speaker 1: make you come in if you say, hey, I am
Speaker 1: actually unwell, can't come into work today. They can't go oh, sorry,
Speaker 1: we don't have anyone to cover your shift. George King,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to do it. No, sorry, manage it.
Speaker 1: You're a manager, organize it. Yeah. Anyway, people are going
Speaker 1: to be really not happy with me in this episode,
Speaker 1: but I don't really care.
Speaker 4: It's good. It's good VD. It's no secret superannuation is
Speaker 4: your favorite topic in the whole wide world.
Speaker 1: And wedding planning. That's also very close to my heart
Speaker 1: at this point in time.
Speaker 4: What to employers owe us when it comes to super Okay, so,
Speaker 4: if you're.
Speaker 1: An employee, you're typically entitled to compulsory super contributions from
Speaker 1: your employer. Obviously there are different ways about it, but essentially,
Speaker 1: if you're over the age of eighteen, absolutely everybody gets
Speaker 1: paid super. Now, historically that wasn't the case. You had
Speaker 1: to meet a minimum criteria of how much you earn
Speaker 1: every fortnight to actually accumulate it. But now everyone who
Speaker 1: is an adult that is working gets superannuation, which I
Speaker 1: think is thriller is xy and these super guaranteed contributions
Speaker 1: need to be a minimum amount based on your current
Speaker 1: super guarantee rate of your ordinary earnings, which is an
Speaker 1: absolute mouthful, but Essentially, George, that right now is ten
Speaker 1: and a half percent. So ten and a half percent
Speaker 1: of your ordinary earnings needs to be paid into your
Speaker 1: superannuation up to what is called the maximum contribution base. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we're going to put in the show notes a link
Speaker 1: to the super guarantees rate from the ato's website, because
Speaker 1: I love that website as well. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, your super guarantee isn't going to be
Speaker 1: less than somebody else's. And if an employer says, oh, gee,
Speaker 1: well actually we only pay five percent super, no you don't,
Speaker 1: that's not an option.
Speaker 4: Right, Okay, so you just mentioned some changes there, Va,
Speaker 4: did you say this is going to be more?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yeah, going up from here at my love.
Speaker 1: So essentially I did touch on it before because I
Speaker 1: really like getting ahead of myself. Last year, your super
Speaker 1: would have been a minimum of ten percent, and then
Speaker 1: this year, as of July twenty twenty two, it went
Speaker 1: up to ten and a half percent, and it's going
Speaker 1: to keep going up. I said before that my favorite
Speaker 1: thing about superannuation was that now everybody has access to it.
Speaker 1: Prior to July first, twenty twenty two, you needed to
Speaker 1: be paid more than four hundred and fifty dollars in
Speaker 1: a month in addition to meeting all other eligibility criteria
Speaker 1: to be eligible for super. And now that has changed.
Speaker 1: But the super guarantee or the SG, which you might
Speaker 1: say on your pay sleep. I've had a few messages
Speaker 1: from that. She's on the money community asking me what
Speaker 1: SG on their pace slips is. It's super guarantee. It's
Speaker 1: your superannuation. But essentially our super guarantee schedule is going
Speaker 1: up and it's going to progressively increase each year by
Speaker 1: point five percent to get to twelve percent by July
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, which I think is very very sexy.
Speaker 4: That is lovely. That's nice, very nice.
Speaker 1: If I'm being honest, it's still not enough for women
Speaker 1: to retire comfortably. But that's another conversation we can have
Speaker 1: another day, George.
Speaker 4: Key, Sure we will, so b when doesn't my employer
Speaker 4: have to make super contributions?
Speaker 1: So if they're not your employer, So if you're like
Speaker 1: a freelancer and you do your tax return by you know,
Speaker 1: being a sole trader or a company, then it's actually
Speaker 1: up to you to pay your own superannuation. That should
Speaker 1: be built into your hourly rate, which is why freelancers
Speaker 1: usually get paid more than a per hour employee generally.
Speaker 1: But I looked on the ATO website and they also
Speaker 1: do not have to pay you superannuation contributions. If you're
Speaker 1: paid to do work of a private or domestic nature
Speaker 1: for thirty hours or less each week.
Speaker 4: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was on the ATO website, G King.
Speaker 1: If you're a non Australian resident and you're paid to
Speaker 1: do work outside Australia, which you're not an Australian resident,
Speaker 1: and you're working overseas, why would I just I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: mister Ato. The next is an Australian resident paid by
Speaker 1: a non resident employer for work done outside of Australia.
Speaker 1: I just you know, it's yeah, straight over my head
Speaker 1: to Gking. If you're a senior foreign executive on a
Speaker 1: certain class of visa sure or you're temporarily working in
Speaker 1: Australia for an overseas employer and are covered by the
Speaker 1: superannuation provisions of a bi lateral social security agreement, So
Speaker 1: you know what all of that is actually telling me
Speaker 1: is no, nine point nine five percent of the time
Speaker 1: your employer should be paying your super unless you really
Speaker 1: resonated with any of those things that made no sense
Speaker 1: to us.
Speaker 4: Perfect. There's also a tool VD to work out if
Speaker 4: you are eligible for Super Guarantee contributions on the ATO website.
Speaker 1: It's way easier than that least I just read out,
Speaker 1: So probably go try.
Speaker 4: That, and it's going to be in the show notes.
Speaker 4: Guys are to it. What do I do if I
Speaker 4: found out my employer hasn't been paying my super riot brier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you start a riot, k No, But literally what
Speaker 1: you're going to do is always check your superballance. So
Speaker 1: let's step back a little bit. We're not worried about
Speaker 1: people who aren't paying super yet, I actually am worried
Speaker 1: that you're not keeping track of your super. Your super
Speaker 1: is your money. As of this year, it is ten
Speaker 1: point five percent of your savings. Most of us aren't
Speaker 1: actually able to save that in our normal day to
Speaker 1: day life, but you're currently investing that. That's really important.
Speaker 1: Care about it. Superannuation can paid on different basises, so
Speaker 1: your employer might choose to pay it monthly, but it
Speaker 1: does need to be paid at a minimum quarterly. So,
Speaker 1: for example, I pay our superannuation every single quarter because
Speaker 1: it's easier to just do it in a bulk lot, right,
Speaker 1: So it's not hard for your employer to do it either.
Speaker 1: G It's actually just as easy as paying a bill
Speaker 1: on be pay. So if they're saying it's complicated, it
Speaker 1: is not. I will school them. But essentially, what I
Speaker 1: want to do before telling you what to do if
Speaker 1: they're not paying you super is actually just be across it.
Speaker 1: So many of us do not log into our super accounts.
Speaker 1: We either don't know how much we have, or we go, oh,
Speaker 1: it's probably about you know, twenty grand or thirty grand,
Speaker 1: but we're not actually paying any attention to whether the
Speaker 1: contributions are being made, Are they being invested, Are they
Speaker 1: being invested in line with my values? Am I happy
Speaker 1: with the risk profile that has been chosen on my
Speaker 1: super account? Do I have more than one super account?
Speaker 1: Am I paying double fees? These are all questions that
Speaker 1: you need to ask yourself. And then furthering that, if
Speaker 1: you go and look, my friend and find that your
Speaker 1: employer has not been paying you super gee, that's when
Speaker 1: we riot okay. But also we are going to start
Speaker 1: by having a conversation. We're gonna ask how they're paying
Speaker 1: Super when they're paying Super, or even if they're aware
Speaker 1: that they are legally required to pay Super and go, hey, guys, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this, but like, my
Speaker 1: super's not showing up. I feel like, gee, in these circumstances,
Speaker 1: it's easier to feign a little bit of ignorance and go, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, Gee, I don't really know how my Super
Speaker 1: account works. But the other day I logged in and
Speaker 1: I realized, like, none of my contributions are going there.
Speaker 1: Could you just check what account they're going through? Maybe
Speaker 1: I've given you an old account that I've forgotten about,
Speaker 1: and I know that that we shouldn't have to do that,
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that that's quoite the best way
Speaker 1: to do it, but you know, knowing that she's on
Speaker 1: the money community, knowing me, knowing you, that's an easier
Speaker 1: in to go you're not paying my Super. Because it's
Speaker 1: also a very hard conversation to turn around and be like, gee,
Speaker 1: you're not paying me, Like that's messed up. So for me,
Speaker 1: let's find an easier way to start that conversation of like, oh,
Speaker 1: what account is it going into? And that my prompt
Speaker 1: them to scramble and actually pay it and be like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, our accounts the department messed up and
Speaker 1: they totally forgotten. It's definitely somebody else's fault, not mine.
Speaker 1: But gee, I looked after you and I fixed it
Speaker 1: when bam, thank you, ma'am. I'll just keep track of
Speaker 1: that because that isn't on. But at least you're in
Speaker 1: the best possible circumstance. But two, really understanding your rights there,
Speaker 1: nobody cannot pay your super. If somebody is not paying
Speaker 1: you super, you can report it. If they haven't paid
Speaker 1: you super, they actually owe you interest on that money.
Speaker 1: So if they haven't paid you, they actually owe you
Speaker 1: more than what the superannuation they missed was. So say
Speaker 1: last year, g I didn't pay your super five hundred
Speaker 1: bucks and the share market has performed at seven percent, Well, great,
Speaker 1: they also owe me seven percent on the five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars that wasn't invested, because it's not just the money
Speaker 1: I'm missing, it's the potential returns for my future retirement.
Speaker 1: So that is actually really big. And if you do
Speaker 1: report it to the ATO, they can be fined in
Speaker 1: addition to that, so it's very very bad, And to
Speaker 1: be honest, people go to jail for not paying Super.
Speaker 1: It's not just a oh sorry I forgot it was
Speaker 1: a mix up. It's an actual offense. Yep, you could
Speaker 1: go to the Slammer. So if you've talked to your
Speaker 1: employer and that hasn't solved the problem, which is really
Speaker 1: sad because his spicy insight into Victoria's life, I have
Speaker 1: had a few messages recently from people in my community,
Speaker 1: my local community, saying, ah, my employer hasn't paid me Super.
Speaker 1: The next step is to actually lodge a claim and
Speaker 1: report them to the ATO via their online platform. So
Speaker 1: if you just Google, obviously we're going to put the
Speaker 1: link to the ATO website in the show notes. But
Speaker 1: if you just google ATO report no pay Superannuation, it
Speaker 1: will actually just come up immediately and you can go
Speaker 1: through that. It is super easy, and you'll let the
Speaker 1: ATO know about your unpaid Super, your late Super payments
Speaker 1: or incorrect payments to the wrong fund, and the ATO
Speaker 1: will investigate it on your behalf. They take that stuff
Speaker 1: super seriously, like it's very easy to report, won't cost
Speaker 1: you anything, And to be honest, all you have to
Speaker 1: do is say I haven't been paid super Because the
Speaker 1: ATO has access to all your data, they can.
Speaker 4: Check right, And so that is worth doing because you
Speaker 4: know a lot of the time people are like, uh, swim,
Speaker 4: but it's not going a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: No, No, that's your money, that's your real gem. And
Speaker 1: also like taking it a little bit of a step further.
Speaker 1: G sorry, if they've done that to you, they're doing
Speaker 1: it to other people. I know you might go, oh,
Speaker 1: it was only five hundred bucks, it was a couple
Speaker 1: of years. Oh, I can't be bothered. Great, you know
Speaker 1: better now, But those poor people that are currently working
Speaker 1: for that employer are probably being treated in exactly the
Speaker 1: same way. And to be honest, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: in a kind of community way, we have an obligation
Speaker 1: to look after other people, and that's one of those obligations.
Speaker 1: Like I know you don't care about the five hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: but to me, it's principle. It's making sure that the
Speaker 1: future of that company is treated as well as you should.
Speaker 4: Have been perfect, and I would care about the five
Speaker 4: hundred bucks. The on that note, let's put a little
Speaker 4: plug in it. But on the other side, we are
Speaker 4: going to be covering off some sad stats, grass yourself
Speaker 4: and also talking about all things oh and S. So
Speaker 4: don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: V.
Speaker 4: Let's dive straight back in and talk about oh and S.
Speaker 1: I heard sad. Stashdale has come to the table.
Speaker 4: Here she is.
Speaker 1: It's good to be here, So okay, be dramatic about it.
Speaker 4: Did you know, No, we'll just be normal. Did you
Speaker 4: know VD an Australian worker is seriously injured every two
Speaker 4: to three minutes.
Speaker 1: Really in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: That is wild.
Speaker 1: That's wild. I thought you were going to say, like
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty four. No, say no, it's twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: That's really sad.
Speaker 4: Wait for it more sad stats to come. Tragically, one
Speaker 4: hundred and ninety four people were fatally injured at work
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: That's like a lot of people. I would really love
Speaker 1: to see the stats George of like what types of
Speaker 1: roles they're in, because that's wild.
Speaker 4: Me too.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're not just walking into a podcast studio though.
Speaker 4: And have thought so. Ninety six percent of worker fatalities
Speaker 4: into twenty twenty were male.
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised by that, to be honest, Well, that
Speaker 1: speaks you would just speaks transtruction traits yeap. There were
Speaker 1: a total of one hundred and twenty thousand, three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty five serious workers compensation claims in Australia in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen to twenty twenty. This was an increase from
Speaker 1: one hundred and fourteen thousand, four hundred and thirty five
Speaker 1: claims in twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen. So that's bloody massive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a lot.
Speaker 4: And finally, the body stressing was the leading cause of
Speaker 4: serious worker is compensation claims in twenty nineteen to twenty twenty,
Speaker 4: accounting for thirty seven percent of all serious claims. Those
Speaker 4: are sad, sad stats, gal, really sad stats. I feel
Speaker 4: like they're need to boody roll out more of those
Speaker 4: work Work's safe at V. Let's talk more about OH
Speaker 4: and S. What is it, how is it laid out?
Speaker 4: And who enforces it? All?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: So ohn S stands for Occupational Health and Safety and
Speaker 1: the Occupational Health and Safety Act of two thousand and
Speaker 1: four or just standard. Let's pretend we work in HR
Speaker 1: for a second. The Act g yeah, is the main
Speaker 1: workplace health and safety law in Australia. It sets out
Speaker 1: key principles, duties and rights all about h ands. Surprise,
Speaker 1: but you didn't see that coming.
Speaker 4: Makes sense.
Speaker 1: It exists to protect the health, safety and welfare of
Speaker 1: employees and other people at work. It aims to ensure
Speaker 1: that the health and safety of the public is not
Speaker 1: put at risk by work activities, which kind of just
Speaker 1: makes sense. But given the stats you gave, clearly not
Speaker 1: enough people are taking this seriously. Now, depending on your state,
Speaker 1: you'll either have work safe or safe work. Well, they
Speaker 1: just probably got a bit confused and then like really
Speaker 1: stuck to their guns. It's safe work. Just a little
Speaker 1: marketing mistake there, but it is their job to protect
Speaker 1: the health, safety and welfare of employees and other people
Speaker 1: at work. It also aims to ensure that the health
Speaker 1: and safety of the public is not put at risk
Speaker 1: by work activities. So I feel like that just makes sense.
Speaker 1: But they will also Safe work or work Safe or
Speaker 1: whoever you think you are, will monitor and enforce compliance
Speaker 1: with the OH and S Act and regulations. They will
Speaker 1: make recommendations to the Minister about the OH and S Act,
Speaker 1: regulations and compliance codes. Their job is to promote public
Speaker 1: awareness and discussion about occupational health, safety and welfare issues
Speaker 1: and their job is also to publish oh and s statistics,
Speaker 1: so maybe they're more legit stat scales than you are.
Speaker 4: WHOA.
Speaker 1: So you report incidents and make claims for injuries at
Speaker 1: work through work safe or safe work. The guys in
Speaker 1: New South Wales really just committed to it work safe none, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's safe work safe work. They're doing a parma parme.
Speaker 1: It's clearly a parmer. I'm not a year to argue
Speaker 1: with you. But if we got on the pod with
Speaker 1: some people from New South Wales, they'd say parme. You
Speaker 1: know what, we counsel.
Speaker 4: Them v on that light note. Let's now talk about discrimination.
Speaker 4: What's going on there.
Speaker 1: It's not when somebody thinks it's a parmi and you
Speaker 1: don't like them. But under the Fair Work Act of
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, it is unlawful for a workplace
Speaker 1: to discriminate against full time, part time and casual employees,
Speaker 1: probationary employees, apprentices, trainees, and individuals employed for fixed periods
Speaker 1: of time or task based on the following arguably anybody,
Speaker 1: but based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, physical
Speaker 1: and mental disability, marital status, family or care as responsibilities, pregnancy, religion,
Speaker 1: political opinion, national extraction, or social origin. And it is
Speaker 1: unlawful to refuse to hire a prospective employee based on
Speaker 1: one of the attributes that I just listed off really quickly.
Speaker 1: Where an investigation finds that the employer has or had
Speaker 1: discriminatory practices that are linked to adverse actions for employees
Speaker 1: or prospective employees, the fair work ombanesman might take enforcement action,
Speaker 1: which I think is very fair.
Speaker 4: Okay, what do you mean by adverse action though?
Speaker 1: Be okay? So adverse action taken by an employer includes
Speaker 1: doing things, or threatening, or organizing any of the following
Speaker 1: I've written a list, so sit down for this one.
Speaker 1: Dismissing an employee, injuring an employee in their employment, altering
Speaker 1: an employee's position to their detro discriminating between one employee
Speaker 1: and other employees, refusing to employ a prospective employee, or
Speaker 1: discriminating against a prospective employee on the terms and conditions
Speaker 1: in the offer of employment. So it's lengthy.
Speaker 4: Is bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment unlawful? As well?
Speaker 1: Is Georgia King. Bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment, are
Speaker 1: serious concerns for literally any workplace and if bullying or
Speaker 1: harassment is linked to one of the attributes that I
Speaker 1: listed just before, so for example, like race, or sex
Speaker 1: or religion, then it may be unlawful discrimination and the
Speaker 1: Fair Work Gobordsman has the power to deal with the
Speaker 1: discrimination complaints. So when I say that they could literally
Speaker 1: take you to court. It's not little and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: wrap over the nungles. We gave you this sign that
Speaker 1: said you were naughty. No, it's like legally enforceable. And
Speaker 1: sexual harassment at work can be a form of serious
Speaker 1: misconduct and can also be a valid reason for dismissal
Speaker 1: under the Fair Work Act. So the Fair Work Commission
Speaker 1: or the FWC also has the power to issue orders
Speaker 1: to stop sexual harassment or bullying in the workplace. Obviously
Speaker 1: we are going to link that one in the show
Speaker 1: notes as well, but that is FWC dot gov dot
Speaker 1: au for more infogking. Obviously, if we're talking about this,
Speaker 1: this is really serious. But I feel like so many
Speaker 1: times we don't value ourselves in a way that we
Speaker 1: should when we're going through circumstances like this. But if
Speaker 1: this is happening to you or someone that you know,
Speaker 1: you can actually go to the fair work obordsman work
Speaker 1: safe or safe work or whatever the hell you're calling them,
Speaker 1: or more importantly, g if you're being bullied and harassed
Speaker 1: and your safety is at risk, you can go to
Speaker 1: the police. Like, this is not a small thing, even
Speaker 1: if it's happening in your workplace and you are being
Speaker 1: paid to be there. If your safety is at risk,
Speaker 1: I would literally march down to the police station. Because
Speaker 1: I don't think enough of us take this really seriously.
Speaker 1: It is a really serious issue. It needs to be
Speaker 1: taken as such.
Speaker 4: Would you say the first step before any of those
Speaker 4: steps would be going to HR.
Speaker 1: Or just just can't condestion And it really depends on
Speaker 1: who it is as well. Let's be honest, Like, if
Speaker 1: you know, we're in a big organization and it's a
Speaker 1: big corporate and they have a HR department, obviously going
Speaker 1: to the HR department would be my port of call.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I'd probably go to my manager first
Speaker 1: and talk about it if it's a colleague, But if
Speaker 1: it's my manager, I'd go to HR and go from there.
Speaker 1: But I think one of the things that we need
Speaker 1: to be super aware of. You know, this isn't a
Speaker 1: nice thing to say, but organizations don't hire HR to
Speaker 1: look after you, Georgia, like your employer didn't hire HR
Speaker 1: to make sure that Georgia King is protected. They hired
Speaker 1: HR to make sure that the business is protected. And
Speaker 1: as much as we go and HR are delightful, people
Speaker 1: like some of my best friends work in HR, it's
Speaker 1: not a problem. But they're hired by the organization to
Speaker 1: protect the organization from any issues that arise, and that
Speaker 1: means obviously supporting people through claims to make sure that
Speaker 1: there's no ulterior outcome for the business. But if something's
Speaker 1: happening and HR aren't doing their job, not just drop it.
Speaker 1: It's go to fair work. It's take it further, because
Speaker 1: if they're dismissive of you or not treating you in
Speaker 1: the way that you deserve one, I'm sometimes not surprised,
Speaker 1: and I really shouldn't be, because you know that's the
Speaker 1: way it works. But fair work exists for a reason,
Speaker 1: and that's because the business is going to protect the
Speaker 1: business at the end of the day. J So going
Speaker 1: to fair work is something that I don't think we
Speaker 1: should be as scared of as possible. And on that note,
Speaker 1: Georgia King taking notes is massive. One thing that is
Speaker 1: going to you know, pay dividends if you're in a
Speaker 1: circumstance where you're being bullied or going through some kind
Speaker 1: of workplace harassment is journaling and keeping tabs on literally everything.
Speaker 1: One of the best ways I have seen to do
Speaker 1: this is actually just send yourself an email. Not from
Speaker 1: your work email that would be silly, but go into
Speaker 1: your personal email and send yourself emails of just like
Speaker 1: maybe just like a file note of like today I
Speaker 1: had a meeting with Georgia and she said XYZ, and
Speaker 1: then I said this, and this is the outcome of that. Like,
Speaker 1: they don't have to be formalized notes. But the reason
Speaker 1: I like it in email is purely because it's also
Speaker 1: time stamped, so if anything ever comes up and you
Speaker 1: need to provide it one you can just print off
Speaker 1: or send off the you know, the emails to fair
Speaker 1: work to be like, yes, I tracked it, here's the information.
Speaker 1: But two, our memories are not as kind to us
Speaker 1: as they should be, and sometimes we forget the detail
Speaker 1: or what they said, or you said something like this
Speaker 1: and it offended me. But like in the moment, I
Speaker 1: would just track it, shoot myself an email, make sure
Speaker 1: that I've got it on record, and those time stamps
Speaker 1: can come in handy. I hate that I have to
Speaker 1: say this because these are the realities of some workplaces
Speaker 1: here in Australia. But I think keeping ourselves safe is
Speaker 1: primo and it's the most important thing. But also, what's
Speaker 1: the worst that can happen. You don't use those notes, great, well,
Speaker 1: just delete them later if you know they're not useful
Speaker 1: at some point because you've got the outcome that you
Speaker 1: needed from your workplace. But journal everything, notarize everything, and
Speaker 1: if possible, like take as much detail down as as possible.
Speaker 4: When you said the don't do it from your work email, ye,
Speaker 4: can our employees go through our EA?
Speaker 1: Yes, of course they can. Of course they can. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course they can. And yeah, okay, so it'll be
Speaker 1: in your employment contract. But nine times out of ten,
Speaker 1: in your employment contract it'll say that that email is
Speaker 1: owned by the company, not by you. Like Georgia, she's
Speaker 1: on the money dot com dot you. I've never been
Speaker 1: through it, because you know what, I don't care what
Speaker 1: you send g But also if something you know detrimental happened,
Speaker 1: I might need to go through your emails. If you're
Speaker 1: the one bullying another employee, and they've said, oh, Georgia
Speaker 1: King sent me this abusive email. I'm going to go
Speaker 1: find it. I'm going to go look for it. And
Speaker 1: a lot of employers, even if you delete it and
Speaker 1: delete it from your deleted box, they'll have a server
Speaker 1: somewhere that has it all backed up. I say that
Speaker 1: because I do, because I'm an employer who my IT
Speaker 1: company said this is how you set it up. This
Speaker 1: is what you do to protect yourself as an employer,
Speaker 1: and I go, yeah, okay, no problems if that's the process.
Speaker 1: But essentially all of the email addresses that you know
Speaker 1: she's on the money owns are owned technically by me,
Speaker 1: and then I can audit at any point I like,
Speaker 1: and I'm actually telling you to send it from your
Speaker 1: personal email to yourself, not because I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: audit it, but like, what if you get fired or
Speaker 1: what if you leave and then don't have access to
Speaker 1: those notes. I just want you to always have access
Speaker 1: to them. So that was my importance. But good point. Yes,
Speaker 1: they can audit anything on your computer, anything on internal messengers,
Speaker 1: like if you've got Microsoft teams, like, they can see
Speaker 1: all of those messages. So yeah, if you want to
Speaker 1: have a personal conversation with a friend or a colleague,
Speaker 1: I would honestly yeah, have it offline, take it to
Speaker 1: text messages, take it to Facebook messenger, take it to Instagram,
Speaker 1: take it anywhere except a workplace platform.
Speaker 4: Let Zuckerburg deal with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let' zuckerburg deal. Let's move snapchat it so it
Speaker 1: deletes later.
Speaker 4: Tell me more about the Fair Work Commission. Who actually
Speaker 4: are they?
Speaker 2: All? Right?
Speaker 1: So, the Fair Work Commission good eggs, doing good things.
Speaker 1: They are Australia's workplace tribunal and they create awards, proof
Speaker 1: enterprise agreements and help resolve issues that happen at work.
Speaker 1: They hear cases of unfair dismissal and rule outcomes. And
Speaker 1: they have tons of really good resources on their website too,
Speaker 1: which link obviously awards and enterprise agreements which you said before,
Speaker 1: information on unfair dismissal, and places where you can get
Speaker 1: legal help and advice. And there's actually heaps of links
Speaker 1: for businesses too, so that they know that they're doing
Speaker 1: the right thing.
Speaker 4: Perfect, Let's move on and chat about unfair dismissal and
Speaker 4: unlawful termination. I've heard it is really hard to get fired.
Speaker 1: Is that true? Maybe I don't know, employee, maybe you've
Speaker 1: never had this issue before. But essentially, dismissal means that
Speaker 1: the employer is telling the employee that they don't have
Speaker 1: a job anymore. So they might say you're fired, or
Speaker 1: you're terminated, or you're leaving next week. But essentially dismissal
Speaker 1: means that it wasn't the employee's decision to leave the role.
Speaker 1: It was the employer's decision. They could fire an employee
Speaker 1: because they're not performing their job to the level that's required.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make it unfair, but there's different reasons why obviously,
Speaker 1: Or they could tell their employee that their positions now
Speaker 1: redundant now or on a future date. In some cases,
Speaker 1: if the employers pay your forces an employee to resign,
Speaker 1: that also could be unfair dismissal. So if you know
Speaker 1: you're being pushed into quitting and they're not saying, quote,
Speaker 1: you're fired, that could actually still be unfair dismissal because
Speaker 1: you didn't feel like you had any other choice but
Speaker 1: to quit.
Speaker 4: And the difference between dismissal and unfair dismissal, what actually
Speaker 4: is that, Like, what makes a dismissal unfair.
Speaker 1: So a dismissal isn't always unfair, Like if an employee
Speaker 1: is maybe not up to scratch and not meeting the
Speaker 1: competencies of a role and they've been trying and trying,
Speaker 1: and they're like, look, this is just lucy, you're not
Speaker 1: fulfilling your role as a dog. You're gonna have to leave.
Speaker 1: It's just not working out. Like, that doesn't mean it's unfair, Like,
Speaker 1: not every dismissal is unfair, even if you feel that way,
Speaker 1: Like you might be so pissed off and you might
Speaker 1: be so upset that you've lost your role, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that it wasn't unjustified or undocumented. And in
Speaker 1: some situations it is actually fair to end an employee's employment, Like,
Speaker 1: I know that sucks to hear, but sometimes.
Speaker 4: You could be.
Speaker 1: Justice first. Yeah, that you just might not be the
Speaker 1: right fit. Right, But when an employee dismisses an employee,
Speaker 1: the law says a few things. It says you should
Speaker 1: not dismiss an employee if it is harsh, unjust or unreasonable.
Speaker 1: You should not make an employee redundant if it is
Speaker 1: not a genuine redundancy, like I can't turn around and
Speaker 1: be like, oh, the role's redundant, Lucy, and then hire
Speaker 1: someone the next week for the same role, because that's
Speaker 1: not a genuine redundancy. And it should always follow the
Speaker 1: Small Business Fair Dismissal Code if they are a small business,
Speaker 1: or there's another code for bigger businesses as well. There's
Speaker 1: a little bit more flexibility from my understanding for small businesses,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean that they get out scot free,
Speaker 1: like you can't just fire people willing nearly. The Unfair
Speaker 1: Dismissal Checklist is obviously one of the links in our EP,
Speaker 1: so go back and have a look at that. But
Speaker 1: essentially unfair dismissal. I guess the TLD are here as well.
Speaker 1: Is it could be an unfair dismissal We said this,
Speaker 1: but if you felt like you had no other option
Speaker 1: but to quit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, perfect fee d. That is all we have
Speaker 4: time for today.
Speaker 1: What a dream.
Speaker 4: Just before we do go, the guys, just a couple
Speaker 4: of notes, please go back and listen to our episode
Speaker 4: on how to have difficult Conversations with your boss. That
Speaker 4: one is super helpful if you are having issues at
Speaker 4: your workplace and if you do think you're being messed with.
Speaker 4: Then there are so many places to go, as we've
Speaker 4: mentioned multiple times in today's episodes. So hit those show notes.
Speaker 1: Baby, they're good show notes.
Speaker 4: But choose to Analisa.
Speaker 1: Choose to Annalisa for pulling all of that together. But
Speaker 1: you know, as you said, unfortunately that's all we have
Speaker 1: time for today. So now it's time for the boring
Speaker 1: but important stuff.
Speaker 4: Jane, let's do it. Remember, guys at the advice shared
Speaker 4: on She's on the Money is general in nature and
Speaker 4: does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money
Speaker 4: exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied
Speaker 4: upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And
Speaker 4: we promise Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
Speaker 4: authorized representatives of in Focused Securities Australia Proprietly Limited ABN
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