FWO

New casual employment definition + employee choice pathway from 26 August 2024.

Paid FDV leave for all employees: 10 days per year (full-time + part-time + casual).

Employer must not misrepresent employment as contractor relationship.

FWC can set minimum standards for 'employee-like' workers (gig economy).

Labour hire workers entitled to same minimum pay as direct employees on host site.

Apply the correct modern award rates, penalties, allowances, and overtime — wage theft is now criminal.

Redundancy pay scale 0-16 weeks based on continuous service (small business exempt).

NES minimum notice of termination scales from 1 week to 5 weeks based on service + age 45+.

Employees may refuse out-of-hours contact unless unreasonable from 26 August 2024.

Employees can refuse to monitor, read, or respond to out-of-hours contact unless refusal is unreasonable.

From 26 Aug 2024, eligible casual employees can notify their employer to convert to permanent employment.

Most modern awards require 17.5% loading on annual leave taken or paid out on termination.

All full-time employees accrue 10 days paid personal/carer's leave per year of service.

Companies must retain financial + business records for 7 years.

FWO enforcement focus 2025: Closing Loopholes No. 2 reforms — casuals (new definition), right to disconnect, gig economy minimum standards, intentional wage theft criminal offence.

Closing Loopholes No. 2 Act 2024 introduced criminal offence of intentional wage theft from 1 January 2025 — Up to 10 years imprisonment + significant fines.

Woolworths self-reported and FWO investigated underpayment of approximately 19,000 salaried managers under the General Retail Industry Award over multiple years. Total underpayment exceeded $1 billion.

Self-reported underpayment of ~$60M to ~30,000 staff over multiple years across Rebel, Supercheap, Macpac.

CBA self-reported underpayment of superannuation guarantee to ~7,400 employees over multiple years.

Rockpool admitted underpayment of ~1,500 staff across multiple venues over 5+ years; $1.6M backpaid + court penalties.

Multi-year disputes around gig-economy worker status; FWC determined Deliveroo rider was employee (overturned on appeal); ongoing reform under Closing Loopholes Act.

Service station franchisor + franchisees prosecuted for underpayment of visa-holder workers + record-keeping breaches.

Bunnings self-reported allowance and petty-cash payment errors affecting employees; remediation announced.

FWO investigation into Grill'd franchisor / franchisee underpayment matters.

Self-disclosed underpayment of admin + paralegal staff; common in legal services industry due to award misclassification.

Class action by ~6,000 Merivale workers alleging systematic underpayment under flat-rate weekly arrangements rather than award.

Made Establishment self-reported underpayment of $7.83 million to 515 staff over six years across multiple hospitality venues.

Multiple franchisee prosecutions following systemic underpayment of visa-holder workers across the 7-Eleven network.

Systemic underpayment across the 7-Eleven franchisee network, including doctored payroll records and underpayment of visa-holder workers.

FWO found systemic underpayment of trolley collectors engaged through subcontractors at Coles supermarkets across Australia.