Payroll Compliance: Meat Industry

Cloud-based payroll software can help employers meet the demands of the Meat Industry Award by simplifying and automating compliance.
BOOK A DEMO

The Importance of Modern Award Compliance

Modern awards are a vital component of the Australian workplace landscape. They serve to highlight the specific terms and conditions surrounding employment in various industries and provide a compliance framework for all businesses operating within those industries.

The Fair Work Act 2009 sets out 10 National Employment Standards that, together with the provisions of a modern award, make up the minimum safety net of employment entitlements in Australia.

This helps create a fair and equitable workplace where employees can be confident that their rights are being upheld. In addition, modern awards help protect employees from exploitation by setting out clear expectations around work hours, pay rates, and other conditions.

By providing this essential framework, modern awards play a vital role in safeguarding the interests of both employees and employers.
11-img-1
Employers in Australia are legally obligated to comply with workplace laws and modern awards. Breaching these could result in hefty fines. For example, an employer who fails to pay their employees the minimum wage could be fined up to $63,000 per breach.

And if you continue to contravene your obligations in terms of the Clerks Award, you may face severe consequences for your business, including potentially having to pay back any lost wages and rates to the employee(s).

Biggest Pitfalls in the Meat Industry

Modern Awards cover employees across various industries. These awards differ from one another in terms of the entitlements and conditions they provide for employees. As a result, employers need to ensure that they are familiar with the relevant award for their sector.
11-img-2
The Meat Industry Modern Award in Australia covers a wide range of occupations in the meat processing industry. These occupations include workers in slaughterhouses, boning rooms, abattoirs, suckling pig farms, processing plants and game farms.

The award sets out the minimum rates of pay, conditions of employment and other terms and conditions for these workers. The award also contains several different clauses which cover things like hours of work, shift arrangements, annual leave and long service leave.
Unfortunately; there’s not much guidance from the Fair Work Commission regarding staying compliant with all its regulations. In addition, the Fair Work website is not always easy to navigate, and it can be hard to find the information you need.

We often find that employers are caught up in compliance traps solely because of a misunderstanding.

Combined with the specific nature of each area of the industry, and the very technical legal jargon, it’s no wonder that so many businesses struggle to stay on top of their compliance obligations.

For example, depending on what type of business falls under each establishment, there are varying ordinary working hours and minimum working hours associated with the day of the week.
11-img-3

The Meat Industry Award covers three primary types of businesses. These are:

  • Meat Manufacturing Establishments
  • Meat Processing Establishments
  • Meat Retail Establishments
It’s your responsibility to pay them each and every allowance relevant to their line of work. Should you fail to do so, you could be subject to some rather harsh penalties.

So, what is the solution? Cloud payroll software and automated time and attendance software.

Managing payroll can be a time-consuming and complex task, as any business owner knows. There are a variety of laws and regulations that must be followed and deadlines that must be met. To make things even more complicated, businesses often have employees working in different locations, with different hours.
11-img-5
Automated payroll software can help to take the hassle out of payroll management. Cloud-based solutions make it easy to access payroll information from anywhere, at any time. And by automating time and attendance tracking, businesses can ensure that they are always compliant with the latest rules and regulations

Employment Hero Payroll

Employment Hero Payroll’s cloud software automatically applies modern award or enterprise agreement rules to ensure your business remains compliant year-round. 

Beyond that, you can automate your entire payroll process from importing timesheet data, gross to net reporting and leave accruals for all scenarios to super calculations and ATO reporting.

logo-keypay

NoahFace Time &
Attendance Software

NoahFace offers an app-based time and attendance software called NoahFace Go which automates scheduling, time tracking and attendance records for site workers. 

In addition, the timekeeping records will automatically integrate with your Employment Hero Payroll cloud software. 

logo-noahface

Employment Hero

Go paperless and automate the employee onboarding process with Employment Hero’s employee HR software - an end-to-end people management platform that covers every aspect of the employee lifecycle.

By incorporating everything you need to recruit, onboard, roster, and manage your aged care team, Employment Hero increases efficiency and drives productivity across every aspect of your workforce.

logo-employmenthero

How Pay Cat Can Help

img-5
If you’re like most business owners, managing HR and payroll is a time-consuming and complicated process.

That’s where Pay Cat comes in.

We offer an all-in-one system that makes it easy to manage your employee information, process payroll, and comply with government regulations. With varying modern awards and industry regulations to get your head around, we understand that working out your obligations as an employee can be overwhelming.
01-img-6
Let our implementation specialists ensure your business remains compliant and in line with relevant regulations, awards and employee entitlements.

Our team of experts can help you stay out of the danger zone and on track with industry-specific standards.

Never get it wrong. No back pay calculations. No inefficient manual interpretation. No data re-entry.

If you’re interested in moving from a manual payroll system to an automated cloud payroll system, get in touch with us today for a free demo.
BOOK A DEMO
book-11

Know Where You Stand 

Not sure what category your business falls into or what awards your employees come under? 

Download our free eBooks to see how relevant modern awards could impact your business. Best of all, these guides are entirely jargon-free so that you can understand your rights and obligations in plain English.