Starting the new financial year with compliance in mind

As we begin a new financial year, it presents an opportunity to stop, review, and update processes and procedures to ensure your compliance is robust and audit-ready, particularly as it relates to your contractors. WorkPro's Tania Evans has compiled a few key elements to kick start a review.

1. Validating and monitoring work rights

It is a legal requirement for you to check the work rights of every worker, regardless of the length of their working contract.

For Australian citizens, the only acceptable document evidence is a birth certificate, Australian passport, Australian citizenship certificate or an Immi card.

For non-Australian citizens, you need to securely capture a copy of their current passport, and electronically check the Australian Department of Home Affairs visa entitlement database to confirm their work rights and any conditions, and only engage the worker in line with those conditions.

It is still a common misconception that work visas only need to be checked once. It is important to regularly monitor, and recheck non-Australian citizens work rights as conditions can change dynamically. Ensure you have a robust process in place to systematically monitor work rights and have visibility of compliance gaps. The Department of Home Affairs can impose significant penalties for engaging illegal workers including single fines for each person in breach of visa conditions, and a jail sentence.

2. Fair Work Statement

Every 30th June, the Fair Work Commission publish an updated version of the Fair Work Statement.

The Statement forms part of the National Employment Standards (NES).

The NES apply to all employees covered by the national workplace relations system, regardless of any award, agreement, or contract.

The Statement must be delivered to every employee as soon as practical after they commence work. You need to retain evidence of the date and time the Statement was provided.

3. Casual Employment Information Statement

Along with the Fair Work Statement, every casual employee needs to be provided with the Casual Employment Information Statement. Introduced in March 2021, the CEIS provides new casual employees with information about their conditions of employment. You can read an overview of the Statement here.

4. Covid-19 Vaccination

Covid-19 Vaccination Mandates have been in place for some time now, with a wide range of industries having specific mandates to adhere to.

It is crucial that you verify your workforce’s vaccination status (or exemption) and ensure you are audit ready. With additional vaccine boosters being rolled out, it’s important to stay diligent and up to date with the latest information and health advice.

5. Onboarding and inducting your new worker

Most companies will have some form of induction process. Delivered manually or leveraging technology to streamline and simplify the process, it includes issuing mandatory documentation, sign off on contracts, and delivery of company policies and procedures.

Safety and compliance learning is also paramount and should be closely aligned to the person’s role or the industry they are working, aimed at reducing injury and keeping people safe. Key learning should also include bullying, discrimination, and harassment, and potentially privacy and cyber security information. If you have a hybrid working arrangement, ensure that the deliver working from home or ‘working safely from anywhere’ information, along with a safety checklist to mitigate risk for yourself and your worker.

For contractors being placed at a host site, there is a further level of governance that needs to be applied and that is information and instruction that helps all parties (the host, the worker, and the on-hiring Agency) understand their roles, responsibilities, and process in this triage relationship.

Remember that being compliant includes strong record keeping, that show evidence of the process followed, and a trace of information that is date and time-stamped.