HR Heartbeat: AI jobs, a $15.3 million penalty and...

Have you heard the latest news?

Everything you need to know about the latest trends impacting employers all over Australia. Keep up to date with the HR Heartbeat.

Let’s get into the headlines.

AI is giving us jobs!

A new report from the Tech Council of Australia predicts that AI will generate 200,000 Australian jobs by the year 2030.

Although 84% of Australian knowledge workers report using AI in their workload, there’s a significant lack of existing skills in the Australian labour market. In order to meet this demand for skilled talent, the pool of AI professionals would need to grow by 500% over the next few years.

Upskilling employees and offering staff members access to skill-building opportunities has long been a way for businesses to add value to their pay packets and create a more agile team. It’s also the only way to ensure that AI contributes the hundreds of billions of dollars to the economy that it is expected to generate through productivity gains.

Tools like a Learning Management System can help you unlock the benefits of continuous learning in your business. While helping you assign learning courses, unlock flexible e-learning on the go, and store course completion certificates for employees.

Eye-watering $15.3 million in penalties

The deliberate exploitation of migrant workers at Sushi Bay outlets around NSW, Darwin, and Canberra have resulted in the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) securing a record figure of $15.3 million in penalties.

This penalty overtakes the previous record penalty against CBA and CommSec of $10.3 million from earlier this year.

The vulnerable workers were mostly Korean nationals on student, working holiday, and skilled worker visas. 163 of these workers had been underpaid over $650,000 between 2016 and 2020, and records were falsified to cover up the underpayments.

The Federal Court imposed penalties of:

• $3.2 million against Sushi Bay Pty Ltd,
  
• $5.8 million against Sushi Bay ACT Pty Ltd,
  
• $2.4 million against Auskobay Pty Ltd,
  
• $2.3 million against Auskoja Pty Ltd, and
  
• $1.6 million against the owner and sole director of the companies.

The owner and sole director as well as Sushi Bay ACT were penalised in 2019 for deliberately underpaying workers. Because of the deliberate, systematic nature of the breaches and conduct displayed in the current proceedings, some of the breaches are deemed ‘serious contraventions’—attracting up to 10 times the maximum penalties that would apply under ordinary circumstances.

Managing payroll can be complex, especially for small business owners. Protect your business from hefty penalties by making sure your business is not at risk of breaching the law and staying on top of your legal obligations. BrightAdvice is available 24/7 to keep Australian small businesses updated on the employment relations landscape.

First time for this provision in court

This case is a rare, first-time opportunity for the FWO to exercise the “responsible franchisor entity” provisions included in the Protecting Vulnerable Workers reforms in court. The reforms are aimed at holding a franchisor responsible for the conduct of its franchisees.

In this instance, the FWO secured penalties of $1.44 million against the franchisor of the brand ‘85 Degrees’, for systematically failing to ensure its franchise network was conducting business compliantly including preventing underpayments at a number of their Sydney franchisee outlets.

The underpaid workers included several young workers and visa holders employed in Sydney in 2019. While 85 Degrees didn’t directly underpay the workers, it is being held legally liable because it should have reasonably known about the underpayment, record-keeping, and pay slip contraventions of its franchisees.

This case, and sizable penalty, is a warning to businesses across Australia that there may be more to your legal obligations than meets the eye.

Redundancies in the headlines

Companies across Australia are hitting the headlines amid a redundancy storm.

Telstra, News Corp, Nine Entertainment, and Paramount Australia are among the companies that have announced redundancies in recent weeks.

The job cut fears are having an impact on employers and employees alike. While 2023 seemed to have employees holding the reins in a labour shortage, Randstad’s survey of 6,105 Australian workers has found that Aussie employees are becoming more cautious and unwilling to take on the job market for better pay. The survey also found that 56% of employees surveyed rated stability in employment as a key metric of their workplace happiness.

With pressure mounting, it’s important to make sure that you as an employer are staying compliant with employment laws. Join our employment relations advisers for a step-by-step guide to redundancies and dismissals to make sure your difficult decisions are made with compliance. Sign up for the next live webcast today for up-to-date guidance.

That wraps up this edition of HR Heartbeat. Stay tuned for more headlines and all the latest updates that will keep you in the know with all the major employment changes coming your way.

If you’ve got questions about the top HR headlines from this week, ask Bright BrAInbox:

What's the process for making redundancies?

To make an employee redundant, you need to have consultation meetings with the employee to inform them of the potential redundancy. In these meetings, you need to explore other options for keeping them in the business if they are at all available, such as reducing the employee's hours or redeploying them to another role. If an alternative cannot be found, then you can dismiss the employee, ensuring that you give them the proper notice and payment.

What is a franchise?

An individual, partnership or company that operates under the name of an already established business.

Is using AI considered plagiarism?

The use of AI tools does not inherently constitute plagiarism. However, AI can produce responses and content that can be significantly similar to existing works. In addition, AI often draws from a large data set grown from multiple users that have entered data to generate responses, it is possible that existing works have been fed into the AI causing it to plagiarise or modify existing works.

Employers should carefully consider whether they allow employees to use AI tools or require them to create their own original work.

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