Firm fined for underpaying security staff

Date
    July 4, 2013


A Canberra company has been fined $66,000 and been warned ''ignorance is no excuse'' after it admitted underpaying 19 of its security guards.      

Legal action was brought against Secom Australia (ACT) by the federal Fair Work Ombudsman after it found 19 security guards - 18 in the ACT and one in Cooma - were not being paid the correct penalty rates.

A Fair Work audit undertaken between February and June 2011 showed the 19 guards were paid a flat rate of $18 to $23 an hour, or $25 an hour on public holidays, with no allowances for night work, weekends and overtime, and incorrect penalty rates for public holidays. In some instances, workers should have been paid up to $42 an hour.

An audit carried out by Secom itself showed the company had underpaid other employees in addition to the 19 guards, and owed more than $100,000 in back pay.      


The Fair Work Ombudsman took the case to the Federal Circuit Court in Canberra, where Judge Warwick Neville ordered Secom pay $66,000 in fines and chastised the company for not seeking proper salary advice.

''An employer, of whatever size, has a responsibility to make appropriate inquiry and obtain proper advice to ensure that there is compliance with all statutory and award provisions that relate to pay and conditions for its employees,'' he said in the judgment.      

''There is no reason given why proper advice was not taken by the Respondent [Secom] to ensure that there was compliance in this case to protect the Respondent's employees … Put more bluntly: ignorance is no excuse.''

The judge noted that since the incident, Secom had employed a human resources manager and was negotiating a new, simpler nationwide enterprise agreement with the union representing its guards.

The company had also written to the affected employees and had paid more than $100,000 in back pay.

Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Michael Campbell said the penalty was a reminder to employers that it was their responsibility to ensure workers receive full entitlements.

''Employers must ensure they are aware of the minimum pay rates that apply and that their business is fully compliant with workplace laws,'' Mr Campbell said.        

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/firm-fined-for-underpaying-security-staff-20130703-2pck3.html#ixzz2Y2GMCgfy

The government needs to allow the Smacking over of workers so that business can afford to pay all of its other regulatory obligations, enough business's have gone broke already, the Labor party can't have its cake and eat it too, it needs to keep workers in place and have them being buggered over to pay for the governments largess otherwise they end up on the dole with all the boat people and thats a net loss.

I could go out on contract for Fair Work, I bet I could find hundreds of businesses that are not paying right.