Fair Work Investigations: Aged Care Sector

#advice #compliance #nsw #qld #sa #workplaceinvestigations aged care employee reports entitlements fair work fair work ombudsman leave and entitlements nurses pay clauses payslip personal care workers remuneration the award visa holders May 01, 2025

In 2023-24 the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) uncovered underpayments in the residential aged care sector, recovering more than $40.5 million in unpaid wages for over 22,000 employees. Building on this momentum, the FWO has turned its attention to personal care workers, nurses and nursing assistants in a new round of investigations.

The investigations are currently underway across 20 organisation in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Organisations were selected based on several factors, including previous non-compliance, anonymous employee reports and the employment of visa holders.

The FWO has expressed concern that the aged care sector employs a high number of vulnerable workers, particularly migrant workers who may be at greater risk of exploitation due to limited knowledge of their workplace rights. The investigations aim to ensure workers' rights and being upheld and focus on the following key areas:

Are employees being paid the correct rate under the award?
Are all entitlements under the award, such as allowances and penalties, actually being met?
Are employers meeting their pay slip and record-keeping obligations?
Are both monetary and non-monetary requirements under the Fair Work Act being met?

The overall goal is to drive greater compliance across the aged care industry and to ensure that any identified breaches result in employees being fully and promptly back-paid.

Employers are strongly encouraged to make use of the FWO's tools and resources, including the Pay and Conditions tool, the fair work phone line and the Fair Work Act. Click on the links below for further information.

Fair Work Act
Pay and Conditions tool
Pay and wages information
Pay, entitlements and working conditions
Fair Work Phone Line - 13 13 94

If you have any questions about the above or would like to engage Employii to complete a review of your pay rates, contracts and applicable award, feel free to reach out via [email protected]. We are more than happy to help!

Author: Paras Patel (HR & Marketing Intern) and Jess Roughsedge (HR Consultant)

Fair Work Investigations: Aged Care Sector

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