Australia: Are you sure you’re paying enough? You could face massive fines if you’ve got it wrong!

Do you pay your employees above the minimum base award rates? Do your employees work through their breaks, more than 38 hours per week, on weekends, public holidays or outside of ordinary hours of work? If so, you may be underpaying them.

Most businesses have some employees covered by an award. Awards typically contain a base rate of pay plus additional entitlements for things such as overtime, penalty rates and allowances (award entitlements). Generally speaking, […]

By | September 29th, 2014 ||

Australia: The mature aged workforce – work health and safety questions for the future

In brief – Ageing workforce likely to lead employers to make significant adjustments
In light of the ageing workforce, employers may find they have to reassess their recruitment practices, consider what reasonable adjustments could be made to accommodate individual workers, take steps to avoid discrimination claims and offer programs to employees to promote a healthy and safe workplace.
Changes to pension age, superannuation contributions and composition of workforce
Between 2010 and 2050, the number of people aged […]

By | September 29th, 2014 ||

United States: Larger Rewards For Wall Street Whistleblowers May Be On The Horizon

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration will seek to remove the $1.6 million cap on rewards to whistleblowers who provide evidence of criminal conduct by financial executives under the 1989 Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA).

In a speech at the New York University Law School, Attorney General Eric Holder explained that increasing the size of whistleblower awards under FIRREA “could significantly improve the Justice Department’s ability to gather […]

By | September 29th, 2014 ||