CASE STUDY
PFG Australia is the second largest tractor and agricultural wholesaler in Australia . With 100 employees in offices across the country , the company sources leading tractor and agricultural machinery brands from around the world and distributes them through extensive dealer networks across Australia .
The challenge of ensuring Annual Salary Arrangement compliance
When the Fair Work Commission introduced changes to Annual Salary Arrangements on March 1 2020 , PFG Australia needed to ensure it was doing all it could to achieve compliance .
The changes introduced new requirements for employers who pay annual salaries to employees covered by certain Modern Awards . This includes keeping detailed time and attendance records of affected employees , including breaks and outer limit hours . They must also , on an annual basis , compare the salary paid to these employees against what they would have been paid under their award .
PFG Australia discovered that it was required to comply with these obligations for 25 of its employees , who fall under the Clerks – Private Sector Award 2010 , Hospitality Industry ( General ) Award 2020 , and the Banking , Finance and Insurance Award 2020 .
Debbie Monteau , Company Accountant at PFG Australia , said the company needed a more efficient method of tracking and processing the time and attendance of its impacted employees .
“ Our previous system required myself and other managers in the business to manually transfer data from employee timesheets into an Excel spreadsheet , then compare what employees were paid versus what they should have been paid . This process took quite a while and wasn ’ t fun .”
Monteau also says that while PFG Australia was compliant due to paying its employees well above award rates , this manual spreadsheet system wasn ’ t capturing all the data required for compliance .
“ We weren ’ t capturing lunch breaks if they were taken by the employee after a certain time of day ,” she said . “ We also weren ’ t aware of overtime owed to employees if they performed this overtime leading into a public holiday .”
Streamlining compliance with Employee Service
To help ensure and automate compliance with Fair Work obligations , PFG Australia chose Employee Service .“ Employee Service has given us confidence
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