Not paying someone for not submitting timesheet

[Emz]

Hi, just wondering if legally we are allowed to withhold a persons pay if they did not submit a timesheet in time?
Tia

[Cottoneyes]

I think it would depend on what type of employee you are talking about:

Casuals - I would think this is fair as the pay office is not able to ascertain what to pay for that period

Part time and full time - I would think you would still need to pay the normal contracted hours at the normal rate of pay unless you had information telling you otherwise.

I withheld all but the normal time early in my career for an electrician with the full backing of the ETU and lived to tell the tale, so doubt it is 'illegal'. In that case the employee was always late and had repeated warnings, one week he pushed to far and got only the normal pay without the allowances and overtime he usually would get.

Check though that the employee is responsible for not submitting the timesheet, in most cases it is a lax manager or team leader who has it on their desk still. If you show you made every effort to get it included, you will have a much stronger case should it become and issue.

[The Y-man]

Originally Posted by Cottoneyes

Part time and full time - I would think you would still need to pay the normal contracted hours at the normal rate of pay unless you had information telling you otherwise.
.

Also whether they are salaried or "clock on - clock off"

The Y-man

[FWI]

The age-old argument of how to pay someone for not submitting time sheets has been an argument that has perplexed many a company.

However, now in the Modern Award era, and the NES it has provided some scope here but not one that is favoured by many employees, yet it cannot be ignored unless you seek the perils of being subject to a complaint by an employee to Fair Work Australia or the Ombudsman.

You need to consider that all employees are engage for a specific set minimum hours of engagement. If full time, 38hrs per week, part-time if regular, again set hours and in most instances up to 38 hrs per week and casuals, depending on the Modern award, at least 3 hours per engagement.

Once this is established, then you have to consider section 323 of the FWAct 2009.

Difficult as I know, but it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure time sheets are submitted, even if it means constant phone calls to the employee as the onus is on the employer to ensure they pay an employee amounts payable in relation to the performance of work.

If employment is subject to a Modern Award (MA), and it does not set the payment frequency, you have up to a month in which to pay the due wages (s323(1)(c)) or if the MA provides for up to forthrigh and your pay cycle is weekly, then it is possible to withhold the payment up to a maximum of a fortnight, and im sure if the employee misses a weekly pay, they will be more mindful in submitting it in the future.

However, if none of these apply, it is important to note the employer MUST pay to the employee at least the known engagement of hours or period of work as the minimum entitlement. It could be argued that it is a defence to not pay the extra entitlements if at the time of the payment those entitlements are unknown to the payee (this can be difficult if it is the employer seeking the employee to work overtime etc, it can then be assumed the employer is well aware of the hours worked by the individual irrespective if there is no time sheet).

What also needs to be made clear here is that the NES now makes it illegal for an employer to deduct an overpayment of wages when it it later discovered to have over paid the employee from a following pay period. If this is done the deduction becomes an unauthorised deductions and I encourage you to look at the provisions of section 324 of the FWAct before deciding on doing this.

If your pay department mistakenly pays an employee, lets say $50 above what they are entitled to, the employer cannot just simple deduct that over payment from the employee from the next pay period or deduct the amount from any other any other entitlement that is owing to them at all , and the employee had won a bonus. Hence making it even more important to chase up time sheets.

Further to this, a full time or regular part time employee or employer is not required to keep a time sheet (record of hours) for ordinary hours of work.