Australian bosses could go to jail for 10 years and be fined $1.65 million if they “deliberately” underpay their workers, as part of new laws that nationally criminalise wage theft from January 1.
The new laws and penalties follow years of underpayment scandals in Australia, with cases at prominent employers including Woolworths, Chatime, Qantas, NAB, BHP, 7-Eleven and the ABC.
Until now, the federal body that investigates wage theft has only been able to go after companies and their directors using civil laws, which don’t come with the threat of jail time.
Now Fair Work will be able to go after them using criminal laws too.
But it will have to prove that the employer intentionally avoided paying a worker appropriate wages and penalties, superannuation or other entitlements.
“This doesn’t include honest mistakes,” a Fair Work spokesperson told ABC News.
[…]
Any individual found guilty could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1.65 million, while liable companies could be fined up to $8.25 million.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been a law already?? Forget calling it “wage theft”, it’s literally just “theft”.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been a law already??
why would it be? the people who make laws don’t work for wages, they pay them.
Ya but you see one is for the poor to be thrown in prison. The other is performance art that comes with a “fine”
It’s been like that in Victoria for a few years, but yeah, disappointing that it’s not treated like any other type of theft.
“deliberate” seems like a pretty high bar. Of course it doesn’t stop employer groups crying that literally stealing is being made illegal.
Hopefully if an employer does it repeatedly, that meets the bar of deliberately.
I hope you’re right, but I suspect a case like this will not count still because “oh the payroll didn’t work properly” means you didn’t do an audit but you didn’t deliberately do it.
i’d imagine if an employee brings up that they’re being underpaid (perhaps anonymously), and then nothing changes then that constituted deliberate
Yeah, seems a bit hard to prove if the wage theft is “deliberate” or a mistake.
And sometimes they deliberately allow mistakes that occur in their favour.
Wow, kinda late on that one. Also, deliberate can be difficult to prove. I’m not entitled to break the law by accident, so why are they?
I’d be happier with the assumption that any wage theft is deliberate and they need to prove otherwise.
Crazy wage theft has only been a civil matter up until now and not criminal. In the US wage theft outpaces theft from stores for value taken from people, I imagine it would be much the same here
Laws are written by rich often white men. Don’t be surprised when the law benefits people of their class.
The important point in this situation is that the ruling class is the owning class; the bourgeoisie. The racial and sexual composition of that class may change (and is already different in many countries), but we should not mistake that for a solution because until there is economic overhaul, the owning class is the class which determines and benefits from laws.
While you are correct that the most influential in Australia are rich and often also ‘white’ men, we must remember that these laws are ultimately written by politicians subject to capital owners, and written to benefit capital owners. That’s why wage theft was only a civil matter - because business owners of all stripes benefit from wage theft.
thanks labor
The article doesn’t mention superannuation, I wonder whether that’s also covered?
I’m fairly sure that a former employer underpaid my super to the tune of about $5k, but I was young and lazy and stupidly didn’t follow that up.
It’s a bit hard to go back 15 years later and ask. I don’t really even know what he should have paid vs. what he actually paid. My suspicion comes from other employees complaining that super was not being paid.
The ATO would know, and while they are slow, once it is raised with them if there are any legitimate issues they get there in the end. About 5 years after I left a job I got a letter out of the blue from the ATO saying that they’d chased down a quarter’s worth of super payments that the business didn’t pay when I left.
Perhaps not 15 years later though, but it’s worth a shot.
The article doesn’t mention superannuation, I wonder whether that’s also covered?
5th line down.
But it will have to prove that the employer intentionally avoided paying a worker appropriate wages and penalties, superannuation or other entitlements.
That happened at my workplace. The ATO was notified, and after a lengthy investigation each staff member were repaid tens of thousands of dollars, including the extra that would have been generated through super growth.
The ATO does not muck around.
