She's On The Money - What Are Your Employee Rights?

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

On today's episode talk about a common concern in the community - your rights an an employee! It can be very overwhelming when your rights are breeched in the workplace, so listen up as we talk about industry awards and agreements, superannuation, OH&S, unfair dismissal, the Fair Work Tribunal and sooo much more!Here are some helpful links: The Union Charter of Workplace Rights Leave Entitlements Am I Eligible for Super Annuation? ATO Super Guarantee Rates Search WorkSafe or SafeWork depending on your state for lots of information! ACTU Fair Work Ombudsman (Bullying, harassment, sexual harassment) or call 13 13 94 Fair Work Commission Unfair dismissal checklist Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are Authorised Representatives of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Georgia King and joining me as she does each and every single Wednesday is Miss Victoria Devine. V, how are we? Georgia King, I am well. What about you? Yeah, good girl. So today we are going to talk about employee rights. It is such a common concern in the community and it can be very overwhelming when you're in the middle of having your rights breached in the workplace. But you do have rights, which is what we're going to talk about today.

It's kind of helpful. Yeah. All right. So this episode is pretty basic stuff, but there are a lot of elements to discuss. Let's be honest. We want to get you thinking about your rights and encourage you to check out the links that are going to be published with this episode to do more digging if any of this has raised concerns for you about you and your workplace, which unfortunately, George, I'm seeing it all over TikTok. I'm seeing it all over Instagram at the moment. People being like, oh my gosh, my employer doesn't let me X, Y, Z, and it's blowing my mind and I guess this is where this topic has come from because I'm just going well people aren't being treated with the respect that they deserve and it's not just respect it's

actually just basic human rights and too many of us just take it as well that's how it works like they're the employer they've got the power um no sit down sis like we are going to school you at the end of this episode you are going to be confident you are going to be telling your boss not to treat you like trash and if your boss isn't treating you like trash hopefully you can learn a few things. So if one of your mates is like, all right, well, my boss is not being kind. You can be like, all right, sit down. I got you. Let me, let me talk. Let me tell you. Yes, exactly. So we're going to be talking about industry awards and agreements, superannuation, OH&S, unfair dismissal, the Fair Work Tribunal, and so much more. What a dream. You guys heard that list and

were like, wow, sexy. G King, tell me more. OH&S. Honestly, sadly, sometimes employers are pretty backwards about coming forwards with your rights and they just don't do things that they are legally required to. And G, you and I know that much of our community are very early on in their employment journey. So it's really easy to get taken advantage of, sadly. Did you know that you actually need to be paid for meetings? And like, did you ever work in retail, G? Not retail, but hospital. Yeah. Did they ever make you come in early? Yeah, but pizza party. Oh, sorry, not early, but that was after work. Oh, you got a little pizza, yeah. Yeah, no, you needed to be paid for that. Like if that's a work meeting, come in. Want to come in 15 minutes early before you shift?

Am I being paid? No. Well, I guess I don't need to be there then. Oh, I bloody need some compensation. V, let's start with work conditions. There are rules about what employees get at work, such as what hours they work, how often they have to take a break, et cetera, et cetera. Where is all of that stuff actually laid out? So the rules are in lots of different places, such as an award or a registered agreement or even your employment contract. And an employee's minimum entitlements are set out in the National employment standards, which is called the NES for short, which is a registered agreement and can provide for other entitlements. But those entitlements can't be less than what's in the NES.

So, gee, if you've got an employment agreement and it says you get one 15-minute break, but the NES says you get a half-hour break, you get a half-hour break. It doesn't matter what it says in your employment contract. The NES is the bare minimum. So, if I were you and you feel like maybe your employment contract is a little bit more snug than it should be, I'd check that because the reality is the NES is the bare minimum. If an award covers the employee, the entitlements can't be overall less than the award that exists. Employment contracts also can't reduce someone's entitlements under the NES, which is what

I said before, but I've listed it down. So we're just going to hop on about it. And you can find employee pay rates or learn more about entitlements. You can go to fairwork.gov.au. Obviously, G, the link is going to be in the show notes. Obviously. Obviously. And they also have a really good quiz on there too, VD, where you can test your knowledge on common employee entitlements. So that kind of thing is like flexible working

arrangement. It's like a fun little quiz. It's not fun. You're going to love it. You'll get 10 out of 10. Thank you. But I also would prefer to just be treated properly, not have to do a quiz to see if I know what my rights are. Well, if anyone listening is interested in the quiz, it's called the Workplace Basics Quiz and you'll find feedback and links to helpful resources in there. It's a lot of fun. But you mentioned awards earlier. I did. What is an award rate? Not like a first award or a second award or a best like she's on the money team member of the week, which you clearly own and get awarded every single week. But essentially awards are legal documents that outline the minimum pay rates and conditions for a type of employment. There are actually heaps of

these. There are more than a hundred different industry or occupation awards that cover most people who work in Australia. And again, we're going to plug the Fair Work website, but you can find yours at fairwork.gov.au forward slash employment conditions forward slash awards. But I wouldn't type that in. I'd just go Fair Work Awards Employment Conditions and like Google it and then it'll come up. Yeah. Quick hack. You can actually solve most things by Googling it, G. And spoiler alert, I'm probably going to say Fair Work about a million times in this episode because they are the OG for information when it comes to anything pertaining to your rights at work. So get ready because you're probably going to get sick of it. Stunning. Love it.

V, let's talk leave entitlements. Sick, annual, that's all I can think of at the moment. Who gets what when? You can get carer's leave. All employees, except for casual employees, get paid annual leave. And the entitlement to annual leave actually comes from the NES, so our National Employment Standards. And awards, enterprise agreements, and other registered agreements

can't offer less than the NES, which we've said before, but they can give you more. So that could be a nice little spicy bonus. Like if the NES says for your job that you get four weeks a year and your boss is like, well, actually we offer five. What a little perk. That's nice. That's different. That's unusual. How much annual leave does an employee usually get? So as a standard for full-time and part-time employees, it's four weeks of annual leave per annum based on your ordinary hours of work. And then shift workers, they might get up to five weeks of annual leave

according to the NES per year. Obviously it's going to change. It's going to be different. and even if your employment contract says more than that, then great. Wham, bam. Thank you, ma'am. That's very exciting. But if it's less than, it's a no from me. Okay. There is also a stunning little leave calculator on our favorite Fair Work website as well if you are curious to see what you're entitled to. V, how does annual leave actually accumulate? Okay. So before I answer that, I also want to go back to your little calculator because that sounds really sexy. Love a calculator. But you can also find your leave entitlements and how much annual leave you have on your pay slip. So it should always keep track of that. And it

will tell you usually in hours, not days, it might be like, oh, you have four hours of annual leave and you kind of accrue it that way. So check that, then you can cross check it based on that calculator, I think is probably the best way to do it. But let's go back to your question about annual leave and how it accumulates. So annual leave accumulates from literally the first day you have of employment, even if you're in a probation period. So you don't have to wait to start getting annual leave and leave accumulates gradually during the year and any unused annual leave will and should roll over from year to year. So your employee can't be like, you didn't use it so we're just going to put it in the bin and start again. Yeah. Illegal. Not an option. Annual leave

accumulates when an employee is on paid leave as well. So if you're on paid annual leave and paid sick carer's leave, you actually still accumulate annual leave. Community service leave, including jury duty, which I thought I was going to have to do a few years ago and then I got booted off. Yeah. Sad story. They just thought that I would be too emotional about a child issue. They're not wrong. Would have been. So it was probably a good yeet. And also if you're on long service leave, you can accumulate it. Annual leave doesn't accumulate though when you're on unpaid annual leave. Yep. Because obviously like you're going into the negative. So that kind of makes sense to me, unpaid sick carers leave or parental leave or unpaid family and domestic violence

leave. So anything that's unpaid, usually not accumulating any type of annual leave. But if you're being paid to be on leave, then yes, you are accruing is the TLDR. That's a good way of thinking of it. The sick leave, just a quick side note here, you're entitled to 10 days or something like that per year. Does that roll over or is it 10 a year? No, it usually is just 10 a year and it doesn't add up or roll over.

And you also don't get paid out sick leave when you leave. It's just kind of a, if you're not well and you need to take some time off, we can do that. Some employers will be a bit more flexible and, you know, gee, if you're really sick, they'll be like, just go on sick leave. It's fine. Or maybe they'll say, okay, well, we need a doctor's certificate to give you further. Like it kind of is negotiable, but that in the NES is the bare minimum.

On sick leave though, say you work in retail. I'm a bit jaded here, George, because I worked in retail for a very long time and I just feel like the manager I had was on a little bit of a power trip that I didn't understand at that point in time. But in hindsight, I'm like, whoa, Victoria, you put up with that? Ew. Your manager cannot make you come in if you say, hey, I am actually unwell, can't come into work today. They can't go, oh, sorry, we don't have anyone to cover your shift, George King. You're going to have to do it. No, sorry. Manage it. You're a manager. Organize it. Anyway, people are going to be really not happy with me in this episode, but I don't really care. I know it's good. It's

good. VD, it's no secret, superannuation is your favorite topic in the whole wide world. Oh, and wedding planning. That's also very close to my heart at this point in time. What do employers owe us when it comes to super? Okay. So if you're an employee, you're typically entitled to compulsory super contributions from your employer. Obviously there are different ways about it, but essentially if you're over the age of 18, absolutely everybody gets paid super now. Historically, that wasn't the case. You had to meet a minimum criteria of how much you earn every fortnight to actually accumulate it. But now, everyone who is an adult that is working gets superannuation,

which I think is really sexy. And these super guaranteed contributions need to be a minimum amount based on your current super guarantee rate of your ordinary earnings, which is an absolute mouthful, but essentially, George, that right now is 10.5%. So 10.5% of your ordinary earnings needs to be paid into your superannuation up to what is called the maximum contribution base. Obviously, we're going to put in the show notes a link to the super guarantees rate from the ATO's website because I love that website as well. But at the end of the day, your super guarantee isn't going to be less than somebody else's. And if an employer says, oh, gee, well, actually, we only you pay 5% super? No, you don't. That's not an option. Right. Okay. So, you just mentioned some

changes there, V, but did you say there's going to be more? Oh, yes. We're going up from here, my love. So, essentially, I did touch on it before because I really like getting ahead of myself. Last year, your super would have been a minimum of 10%. And then this year, as of July 2022, it went up to 10.5% and it's going to keep going up. I said before that my favorite thing about superannuation was that now everybody has access to it. Prior to July 1st, 2022, you needed to be paid more than $450 in a month in addition to meeting all other eligibility criteria to be eligible for super. And now that has changed. But the super guarantee or the SG, which you might say on your payslip, I've had a few messages from the She's On The Money community asking me what SG on

their payslips is. It's super guarantee. It's your superannuation. But essentially, our super guarantee schedule is going up and it's going to progressively increase each year by 0.5% to get to 12% by July 2025, which I think is very, very sexy. That is lovely. That's nice. Nice, very nice. If I'm being honest, it's still not enough for women to retire comfortably, but that's another conversation we can have another day, Georgia King. Sure we will. So Bea, when doesn't my employer have to make super contributions? So if they're not your employer, so if you're a freelancer and you do your tax return by being a sole trader or a company, then it's actually up to you to pay your own superannuation and that should be built into your hourly rate, which is

why freelancers usually get paid more than a per hour employee generally. But I looked on the ATO website and they also do not have to pay you superannuation contributions if you are paid to do work of a private or domestic nature for 30 hours or less each week. What does that mean? I don't know. It was on the ATO website, G King. If you're a non-Australian resident and you're paid to do work outside Australia, which you're not an Australian resident and you're working overseas, why would you? I was like, okay, Mr. ATO. The next is an Australian resident paid by a non-resident employer for work done outside of Australia. I just, you know, it's straight over my head too, J. King. If you're a senior foreign executive on a certain class of visa or you're

temporarily working in Australia for an overseas employer and are covered by the superannuation provisions of a bilateral social security agreement. So you know what all of that is actually telling me? Is 99.95% of the time your employer should be paying your super unless you really resonated with any of those things. That made no sense to us. perfect there's also a tool vd to work out if you are eligible for super guarantee contributions on the ato website that sounds way easier than that list i just read out so probably go try that and it's gonna be in the show notes guys so what a dream to it v what do i do if i find out my employer hasn't been paying my super riot briar yeah you start a riot okay no but literally what

you're gonna do is always check your super balance so let's step back a little bit we're not worried about people who aren't paying super yet, I actually am worried that you're not keeping track of your super. Your super is your money. As of this year, it is 10.5% of your savings. Most of us aren't actually able to save that in our normal day-to-day life, but you're currently investing that. That's really important. Care about it. Superannuation can be paid on different basis. So your employer might choose to pay it monthly, but it does need to be paid at a minimum quarterly. So for example, I pay our superannuation every single quarter because it's easier to just do it in a bulk lot, right? So it's not hard for your employer to do it either, G. It's actually

just as easy as paying a bill on BPAY. So if they're saying it's complicated, it is not. I will school them. But essentially what I want to do before telling you what to do if they're not paying you super is actually just be across it. So many of us do not log into our super accounts. we either don't know how much we have or we go, oh, it's probably about, you know, 20 grand or 30 grand, but we're not actually paying any attention to whether the contributions are being made. Are they being invested? Are they being invested in line with my values? Am I happy with the risk profile that has been chosen on my super account? Do I have more than one super account? Am I paying double fees? These are all questions that you need to ask yourself.

And then furthering that, if you go and look, my friend, and find that your employer has not been paying you super, gee, that's when we riot. Okay. But also we are going to start by having a conversation. We're going to ask how they're paying super, when they're paying super, or even if they're aware that they are legally required to pay super and go, hey guys, like, I don't know if you know this, but like my super's not showing up. I feel like, gee, in these circumstances, it's easier to feign a little bit of ignorance and go, oh my gosh, gee, I don't really know how my super account works. But the other day I logged in and I realized like none of my contributions are going there. Could you just check what account they're going through? Maybe I've given you an old

account that I've forgotten about. And I know that we shouldn't have to do that. And I'm not saying that that's quite the best way to do it. But, you know, knowing that she's on the money community, knowing me, knowing you, that's an easier in to go, you're not paying my super. Because it's also a very hard conversation to turn around and be like, gee, you're not paying me. Like that's messed up. So for me, let's find an easier way to start that conversation of like, oh, what account is it going into? And that might prompt them to scramble and actually pay it and be like, oh my gosh, our accounts department messed up and they totally forgot. And it's definitely somebody else's fault, not mine. But gee, I looked after you and I fixed it.

Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. I'll just keep track of that because that isn't on, but at least you're in the best possible circumstance. But two, really understanding your rights there. Nobody can not pay your super. If somebody is not paying you super, you can report it. If they haven't paid you super, they actually owe you interest on that money. So, if they haven't paid you, they actually owe you more than what the superannuation they missed was. So, say last year, gee, I didn't pay your super 500 bucks and the share market has performed at 7%. Well, great. They also owe me 7% on the $500 that wasn't invested because it's not just the money I'm missing, it's the potential returns for my future retirement. So, that is actually

really big. And if you do report it to the ATO, they can be fined in addition to that. So, it's very very bad and to be honest people go to jail for not paying super it's not just a oh sorry I forgot it was a mix-up it's an actual offence yeah you could go to the slammer okay so if you've talked to your employer and that hasn't solved the problem which is really sad because here's spicy insight into Victoria's life I have had a few messages recently from people in my community my local community saying ah my employer hasn't paid me super the next step is to actually lodge a claim and report them to the ATO via their online platform. So if you just Google, obviously we're going to put the link to the ATO website in the show notes, but if you just Google ATO report

no pay superannuation, it will actually just come up immediately and you can go through that. It is super easy and you'll let the ATO know about your unpaid super, your late super payments or incorrect payments to the wrong fund and the ATO will investigate it on your behalf. They take that stuff super seriously like it's a very easy to report won't cost you anything and to be honest all you have to do is say I haven't been paid super because the ATO has access to all your data they can check right and so that is worth doing because you know a lot of the time people are like I'd swim but it's not gonna go anywhere a couple of years ago no yeah no that's your money that's your retirement also like taking it a little bit of a step further G sorry if they've

done that to you, they're doing it to other people. I know you might go, oh, it was only 500 bucks. It was a couple of years ago. I can't be bothered. Great. You know better now. But those poor people that are currently working for that employer are probably being treated in exactly the same way. And to be honest, I think, you know, in a kind of community way, we have an obligation to look after other people. And that's one of those obligations. Like, I know you don't care about the 500 bucks, but to me, it's principle. It's making sure that the future of that company is treated as well as you should have been. Perfect. And I would care about the $500. V, on that note, let's put a little plug in it. But on the other side, we are going to

be covering off some sad stats. Brace yourselves. And also talking about all things O, H and S, so don't go anywhere. V, let's dive straight back in and talk about O, H and S. I heard sad stats gal has come to the table. Here she is. It's good to be here. Oh, okay. Be dramatic about it. Did you know?

No, we'll just be normal. Did you know, VD, an Australian worker is seriously injured every two to three minutes? Really? In 2022? That is wild, actually. That's wild. I thought you were going to say like in 1924. No.

That's insane. No, it's 2022. That's really sad. Wait for it. More sad stats to come. tragically 194 people were fatally injured at work in 2020 that's like a lot of people i would really love to see the stats george of like what types of roles they're in because that's wild me too i'm sure they're not just walking into a podcast studio though i wouldn't have

thought so 96 of worker fatalities in 2020 were male i'm not surprised by that to be honest well Well, that speaks volumes to trades. You would think to construction trades. Yep. There were a total of 120,355 serious workers' compensation claims in Australia in 2019 to 2020. This was an increase from 114,435 claims in 2018 to 2019. So that's bloody massive. Yeah, that's a lot.

And finally, V, body stressing was the leading cause of serious workers' compensation claims in 2019 to 2020. accounting for 37% of all serious claims. Oh, those are sad stats. Sad stats, girl. Really sad stats. I feel like they need to bloody roll out more of those work health safe acts. V, let's talk more about OH&S. What is it?

How is it laid out? And who enforces it? All right. So OH&S stands for Occupational Health and Safety. And the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2004, or just like standard, let's pretend we work in HR for a second, just the OH&S Act, G, yeah, is the main workplace health and safety law in Australia. It sets out key principles, duties and rights all about OH&S. Surprise. Bet you didn't see that coming. Makes sense. It exists to protect the health,

safety and welfare of employees and other people at work. It aims to ensure that the health and safety of the public is not put at risk by work activities, which kind of just makes sense. But given the stats you gave, clearly not enough people are taking this seriously. Now, depending on your state, you'll either have work safe or safe work. lol they just probably got a bit confused and then like really stuck to their guns they're like just a little marketing mistake there but it is their job to protect the health safety and welfare of employees and other people at work it also aims to ensure that the health and safety of the public is not put at risk by work activities so i feel like that just makes sense but they will

so safe work or work safe or whoever you think you are will monitor and enforce compliance with the OH&S Act and regulations. They will make recommendations to the minister about the OH&S Act regulations and compliance codes. Their job is to promote public awareness and discussion about occupational health, safety and welfare issues. And their job is also to publish OH&S statistics. So maybe they're more legit stats gals than you are. Whoa. So you report incidents and make claims for injuries at work through WorkSafe or SafeWork. The guys in New South Wales really just committed to it. They're like, work safe? No, no, no, it's safe work. Safe work. It's like palmer, palmy, you know, that argument. It's definitely palmer. It's clearly a palmer. I'm not here to argue with

you. But if we got on the pod with some people from New South Wales, they'd say palmy. You know what? We'd cancel them. V, on that light note, let's now talk about discrimination. What's going on there? It's not when somebody thinks it's a palmy and you don't like them. But under the Fair Act of 2009, it is unlawful for a workplace to discriminate against full-time, part-time, and casual employees, probationary employees, apprentices, trainees, and individuals employed for fixed periods of time or tasks based on the following. Arguably anybody, but based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family or carer's responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction, or social

origin and it is unlawful to refuse to hire a prospective employee based on one of the attributes that I just listed off really quickly. Where an investigation finds that the employer has or had discriminatory practices that are linked to adverse actions for employees or prospective employees, the Fair Work Ombudsman might take enforcement action, which I think is very fair. Okay. What do you mean by adverse action though, Bea? Okay, so adverse action taken by an employer includes doing things or threatening or organizing any of the following. I've written a list, so sit down for this one. Dismissing an employee, injuring an employee in their employment, altering an employee's position to their detriment, discriminating between one employee and other employees, refusing to employ a prospective employee, or discriminating against a prospective employee on the terms and conditions in the offer of employment. So it's lengthy. is bullying harassment and sexual harassment unlawful as well of course it is georgia king bullying and harassment including sexual harassment are serious concerns for literally any workplace

and if bullying or harassment is linked to one of the attributes that i listed just before so for example like race or sex or religion then it may be unlawful discrimination and the fair work ombudsman has the power to deal with the discrimination complaints so when i say that like they could literally take you to court. It's not little and they're like, oh, wrap over the knuckles. We gave you this sign that said you were naughty. No, it's like legally enforceable. And sexual harassment at work can be a form of serious misconduct and can also be a valid reason for dismissal under the Fair Work Act. So the Fair Work Commission or the FWC also has the power to issue orders to stop sexual harassment or bullying in the workplace. Obviously, we are going to link

that one in the show notes as well but that is fwc.gov.au for more info G King. Obviously if we're talking about this this is really serious but I feel like so many times we don't value ourselves in a way that we should when we're going through circumstances like this but if this is happening to you or someone that you know you can actually go to the fair work ombudsman work safe or safe work or whatever the hell you're calling them or more importantly G if you're being bullied and harassed and your safety is at risk, you can go to the police. Like this is not a small thing, even if it's happening in your workplace and you are being paid to be there, if your safety is at risk, I would literally march down to the police station because I don't think enough of us take

this really seriously. It is a really serious issue. It needs to be taken as such. Would you say the first step before any of those steps would be going to HR or does it just completely depend on the situation. And it really depends on who it is as well. Let's be honest. Like if, you know, we're in a big organization and it's a big corporate and they have a HR department, obviously going to the HR department would be my port of call. To be honest, I'd probably go to my manager first and talk about it if it's a colleague, but if it's my manager, I'd go to HR and go from there. But I think one of the things that we need to be super aware of, you know, this isn't a nice thing to say, but organizations don't hire HR to look after you, Georgia. Like

your employer didn't hire HR to make sure that Georgia King is protected. They hired HR to make sure that the business is protected. And as much as we go and HR are delightful people, like some of my best friends work in HR, it's not a problem, but they're hired by the organization to protect the organization from any issues that arise. And that means obviously supporting people through claims to make sure that there's no ulterior outcome for the business. But if something's happening and HR aren't doing their job, it's not just drop it. It's go to Fair Work. It's take it further because if they're dismissive of you or not treating you in the way that you deserve, one, I'm sometimes not surprised and I really shouldn't be because, you know, that's the way

it works. But Fair Work exists for a reason and that's because the business is going to protect to the business at the end of the day, Jay. So going to fair work is something that I don't think we should be as scared of as possible. And on that note, Georgia King, taking notes is massive. One thing that is going to pay dividends if you're in a circumstance where you're being bullied or going through some kind of workplace harassment is journaling and keeping tabs on literally everything. One of the best ways I have seen to do this is actually just send yourself an email, not from your work email, that would be silly, but go into your personal email and send yourself emails of just like, maybe just like a file note of like, today I had a meeting with

Georgia and she said X, Y, Z, and then I said this, and this is the outcome of that. Like they don't have to be formalized notes, but the reason I like it in email is purely because it's also timestamped. So if anything ever comes up and you need to provide it, one, you can just print off or send off the, you know, the emails to Fair Work to be like, yes, I tracked it. Here's the information but two our memories are not as kind to us as they should be and sometimes we forget the detail or what they said or you said something like this and it offended me but like in the moment I would just track it shoot myself an email make sure that I've got it on record and those time stamps can come in handy I hate that I have to say this because these are the realities of

some workplaces here in Australia but I think keeping ourselves safe is primo and it's the most important thing but also what's the worst that can happen you don't use those notes great we'll just delete them later if you know they're not useful at some point because you got the outcome that you needed from your workplace but journal everything notarize everything and if possible like take as much detail down as as possible when you said there v definitely don't do it from your work email yeah can our employees go through our yes of course they can oh my god Yeah, of course they can. Yeah. Okay. So it'll be in your employment contract, but nine times out of 10 in your employment contract, it'll say that that email is owned

by the company, not by you. Like georgia at she's on the money.com.au. I've never been through it because you know what? I don't care what you send G. But also if something detrimental happened, I might need to go through your emails. If you're the one bullying another employee and they've said, oh, Georgia King sent me this abusive email. I'm going to go find it. I'm going to go look for it. And a lot of employers, even if you delete it and delete it from your deleted box, they'll have a server somewhere that has it all backed up. I say that because I do, because I'm an employer who my IT company said, this is how you set it up. This is what you do to protect yourself as an employer. And I go, yeah, okay, no problems if that's the process.

But essentially all of the email addresses that, you know, she's on the money owns, are owned technically by me. And then I can audit them at any point I like. And I'm actually telling you to send it from your personal email to yourself, not because I think they're going to audit it, but like, what if you get fired or what if you leave and then don't have access to those notes? I just want you to always have access to them. So that was my importance, but good point. Yes, they can audit anything on your computer, anything on internal messengers. Like if you've got Microsoft Teams, like they can see all of those messages. So yeah, if you want to have a personal conversation with a friend or a colleague, I would honestly, yeah, have it offline, take it

to text messages, take it to Facebook Messenger, take it to Instagram, take it anywhere except a workplace platform. Let Zuckerberg deal with it. Yeah, let Zuckerberg deal with it. Fee, let's move on. Snapchat it so it deletes later. Tell me more about the Fair Work Commission. Who actually are they? All right, so the Fair Work Commission, Good Eggs Doing Good Things, they are Australia's workplace tribunal and they create awards, approve enterprise agreements and help resolve issues that happen at work. They hear cases of unfair dismissal and rule outcomes and they have tons of really good resources on their website too, which link obviously to awards and enterprise agreements, which you said before, information on unfair dismissal and places where you can get legal

help and advice. And there's actually heaps of links for businesses too, so that they know that they're doing the right thing. Perfect. Vy, let's move on and chat about unfair dismissal and unlawful termination. I've heard it is really hard to get fired. Is that true? Maybe you've never had this issue before, but essentially dismissal means that the employer is telling the employee that they don't have a job anymore. So they might say you're fired or you're terminated or you're, you know, leaving next week. But essentially dismissal means that it wasn't the employee's decision to leave the role. It was the employer's decision. They could fire an employee because they're not performing their job to the level that's required. That doesn't

make it unfair, but there's different reasons why, obviously. Or they could tell their employee that their position's now redundant now or on a future date. In some cases, if the employer's behavior forces an employee to resign, that also could be unfair dismissal. So if you're being pushed into quitting and they're not saying, quote, you're fired, that could actually still be unfair dismissal because you didn't feel like you had any other choice but to quit. And the difference between dismissal and unfair dismissal, what actually is that? Like what makes a dismissal unfair so a dismissal isn't always unfair like if an employee is maybe not up to scratch and not meeting the competencies of a role and they've been trying and trying and they're like look this

is just Lucy you're not fulfilling your role as a dog you're gonna have to leave yeah it's just not working out like that doesn't mean it's unfair like not every dismissal is unfair even if you feel that way like you might be so pissed off and you might be so upset that you've lost your role but that doesn't mean that it wasn't unjustified or undocumented. And in some situations, it is actually fair to end an employee's employment. Like, I know that sucks to hear, but sometimes it's not unfair. You could be shooting a job. Yeah, quite literally. Let's just call a spade a spade. Yeah, that you just might not be the right fit, right? But when an employee dismisses an employee,

the law says a few things. It says you should not dismiss an employee if it is harsh, unjust, or unreasonable. You should not make an employee redundant if it is not a genuine redundancy like I can't turn around and be like oh the role's redundant Lucy and then hire someone the next week for the same role because that's not a genuine redundancy and it should always follow the small business fair dismissal code if they are a small business or there's another code for bigger businesses as well there's a little bit more flexibility from my understanding for small businesses but it doesn't mean that they get out scot-free like you can't just fire people willy-nilly. The unfair dismissal checklist is obviously one of the links in our app,

so go back and have a look at that. But essentially, unfair dismissal, I guess the TLDR here as well is it could be an unfair dismissal, we said this, but if you felt like you had no other option but to quit. Yeah. Okay. Perfect, VD. That is all we have time for today. What a dream. Just before we do go though, guys, just a couple of notes. Please go back and listen to our episode on how to have difficult conversations with your boss. That one is super helpful if you are having issues at your workplace.

And if you do think you're being messed with, then there are so many places to go, as we've mentioned multiple times in today's episode. So hit those show notes, baby. They're good show notes this week. I like them, but cheers to Annalisa. Cheers to Annalisa for pulling all of that together.

But, you know, as you said, unfortunately, that's all we have time for today. So now it's time for the boring, but important stuff. G, hit it. Let's do it. Remember, guys, that the advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances.

She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And we promise Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of In Focus Securities Australia, Proprietary Limited, ABN 4709-779-7049, AFSL 236-523. Have a good week, friends. We will see you on Friday. Thank you for watching.