Audits of 125 businesses across the Adelaide CBD and surrounding suburbs have found 45% to be non-compliant with workplace laws.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has released the findings of its compliance and education campaign targeting businesses in the Adelaide CBD, North Adelaide, Norwood, Kent Town and Brompton.
Checks of businesses’ time and wage records found that 36 (29%) of audited businesses were not paying their employees correctly, while 29 (23%) had breached their record keeping and payslip requirements.
As a result of the audits, $54,701 in wages and entitlements was recovered for 113 workers.
Inspectors issued seven formal cautions, six infringement notices (on-the-spot fines) and three compliance notices to non-compliant businesses.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the checks were prompted by comparatively high numbers of requests for assistance from the area in the years preceding the campaign, with numbers of requests from Adelaide, Norwood and Brompton amongst the highest in the state.
“The findings in this campaign reinforce the reason why we recently commenced the National Workplace Basics Campaign, as there are still too many employers simply not getting the basics right when it comes to ‘bread and butter’ issues such as pay rates, classifications and record keeping.”