Aussie Salary Payment Date Rules

[SurferMan]

Hi Folks,

Who knows the rules for salary payments in Aus, specifically WA? i work for a small company (<5) and every month I'm paid on a different day. (pay date is 15th of each month) Normally in SA the rule was if the paydate fell on a weekend or public holiday you had to be paid the preceding work day. In my case it can be 3-4 days afterwards. It messes up debit orders and causes other issues.

Anyone know the rules/law on this? My employer says it can be anytime after the 15th, "within reason"

[Sunnyskies]

Need to check your employment contract. If it says not later the x day then it is up to the company to pay you in advance of that day if banks don't operate on the designated day. But you may find your contract allows for payment after if the day is a public holiday.

[Nev]

Not a lawyer but been studying this stuff as i am busy with an Advanced Diploma in Accounting at the mo,

Labour law in oz is pretty complex

You get something called an "Award", this is where the government has legislated that a specific class of work, for example clerical, has their own special rules, these rules apply to things like how much to pay, when to pay, how much leave, long service leave ...etc

To make it more complex different awards have different rules, and some of them have rules about things that others dont, there are a total of 122 Awards in Oz, so first question are you covered by an award, and does it cover date of pay (Some do)

Check here:

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/About-us/policies-and-guides/Fact-sheets/Minimum-workplace-entitlements/modern-awards

If you are covered by an award that is the law, it doesn't matter what your contract says,

If you are not covered by an award then your contract is king, whatever you agreed to in your employment contract is what they need to deliver on, if your contract says "Reasonable Time" and they haven defined that you have a case to make with "fair work Australia" about it as it could be considered unreasonable of them not to provide you with your salary before a defined date,

BUT

It probably wont be worth causing all the drama unless you plan on changing jobs as setting "fair work" on a company is a great way to poison your relationship with the company pretty much permanently.

Have a hard think though, are they missing the dates due to cashflow - Pretty good sign that they might be a few jobs away from bankruptcy and you should be looking to leave while you still have cash in the bank, other signs like suppliers not delivering goods (Due to missed payments) them pushing hard for over billing customer and early payment from customers can all be warning signs

or is it because they are just a bit useless, if this is the case try and build up a buffer in the bank to handle a period of time's bills, that is always a good idea and means that you are not as dependent on specific dates

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Been looking to see if I could find anything but all I keep coming across is that fact that they are required to pay you for hours worked at regular intervals which are weekly, fortnightly or monthly according to your employment contract.

If they fail to pay you regularly then you can approach thw fair work ombudsman but that can be a long process and would probably end up souring the relationship. Tough one dude.

[SurferMan]

Thanks lads!

I reckon I will start shopping around, I know the cash flow is bare bones. Time to pray some more.

[Search]

What line of work are you in?

[SurferMan]

Hi Search,

I'm in ICT, with a specialisation in SAP/integration/solution design.

Cheers

[Bronwyn&Co]

Surferman it might just be easier to change your direct debit dates if you can.

Also talk to your employer and ask them to pay on time or preferably 2 or 3 days before, to give it time to hit your bank account?

If they really cannot, it sounds like an indication of cashflow problems, hmmmm.

Anyway it's unusual for an Aussie company to pay monthly, it's usually fortnightly.