South Australian employers caught deliberately underpaying workers could face jail time and hefty fines, under new laws proposed by the federal government.
About time.
Some business and employer groups have been using wage underpayment as a business strategy.
“The objective is to make sure people are paid properly,” Minister Burke said.
The McKell Institute estimates that wage theft is costing South Australian workers $500 million a year.
The government insists criminal penalties won’t apply for “honest mistakes”, which some employers have been making for 30 years.
Honest mistake after honest mistake.
I expect The Advertiser to run a full page spread on how the legislation is an attack on small business.
Mr Burke last week announced plans to introduce new legislation that would give gig workers more rights, including minimum pay rates.
A test will ask whether a person is earning income through a digital platform, and whether they are “employee-like”, determined by whether a person has low bargaining power, low levels of control over their work, and lower wages than if they were engaged as an employee.
That will affect wage slaves working for Uber, Hungry Panda and Doordash but not people finding work through platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp or Airtasker.