HR Breaches Criminalised from January 1, 2025
From 1 January 2025, underpaying your agency's employees could lead you into hot water — this means fines, jail time, or both. Honest mistakes are excluded. There is a catch with mistakes, however, as you first have to report them to the Fair Work Ombudsman to obtain relief from prosecution. If you have past or current issues with compliance:
Compliance Code: Real estate businesses will need to follow the Voluntary Compliance Code to show no intent to underpay employees to be protected from criminal prosecution.
Cooperation Agreements: if you have breached laws in the past, you will need to enter into a Cooperation Agreement to avoid a criminal referral
If you do not self-report, you are exposed for wrongdoings going back 6 years.
What You Should Do
Check with your Office Manager, Book-Keeper whether they know the HR laws and can give you comfort your agency is compliant
Investigate intricacies such as annual leave for Commission-Only sales agents, whether this area is compliant
Look into how accurately you handle termination payments - for example, for sales agents, have you always paid out the accrued annual leave at termination?
Check all the pay rates for your sales, rentals and administration team to ensure you are using the correct Award wage
For sales agents on minimum wages, look into motor vehicles and phone allowances and whether they comply.
With agent deductions, have you got a signed Employment Agreement with authority included?
Stay compliant and safeguard your business from risk.