Australia has one of the most complex, confusing and challenging industrial relations systems in the world. Navigating it can be difficult for an expert, never mind a hard-working retailer who doesn’t have a background in employment law.
However, as we have seen with a few recent cases via the media, it is vital that your business is proactively monitoring, reviewing and resolving any payment issues that may arise. Overwhelmingly, where non-compliance does occur it is entirely unintentional and when detected, the business in question almost always goes above and beyond to rectify the error.
It is ideal though for everyone if wage non-compliance can be avoided in the first place. Moreover, when cases do occur, it can generate unwanted headlines and embolden various governments to crack down on ‘wage theft’.
To help you gain a firm understanding of this complex issue, the NRA holds regular online workshops entitled Rostering for Compliance Under the General Retail Industry Award. The next workshop will be taking place on March 20 and you can register here. Alternatively, if you have any general or specific concerns with compliance issues, our NRA Legal team is only a phone call away and can be contacted on 1800 RETAIL (738 245).
Finally, there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel regarding the challenging period that retail is experiencing.
After a disappointing ABS retail trade report for December 2018, the National Australia Bank (NAB) had some positive news in its cashless retail sales index for January, released last week. It forecast a 0.6 per cent growth for the first month of the year and forecasts the ABS report for January to have 0.3 per cent growth for retail.
Although these figures are not ground-breaking, they do indicate that the sector is heading in the right direction and hopefully will form a base to build on for the rest of the year.
I hope you have a great week!
For further information on any queries you may have please do not hesitate to contact the NRA at 1800 RETAIL (738 245).