Fair Work Ombudsman's hospitality audits reveal concerning results

The food services and accommodation industry kept the Fair Work Ombudsman busy in the past year, accounting for 40% of Enforceable Undertakings entered with employers in 2015/16.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said 43 Enforceable Undertakings were executed in the period, 17 of which were employers in the food services and accommodation sector, up from 11 in 2014–15.

Cafes and restaurants continue to feature prominently, accounting for one in five of the workplace pacts signed over the past two financial years. And takeaway food businesses emerged as a subsector with ongoing issues, accounting for 19% of Undertakings within the food services and accommodation industry.

Enforceable Undertakings were introduced by legislation in 2009 and the Fair Work Ombudsman has been using them to achieve outcomes against companies that breach workplace laws, without the need for civil court proceedings.

“We use Enforceable Undertakings where we have formed a view that a breach of the law has occurred, but where the employer has acknowledged this, accepted responsibility and agreed to cooperate and fix the problem,” James said.

In 2015–16, a total of $3.85 million in underpaid wages and entitlements was returned to 2132 employees as a result of their employers entering into Enforceable Undertakings with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

This is up slightly on the $3.75 million recovered for 2507 workers the previous year.

Food services and accommodation continues to generate high numbers of dispute notifications, accounting for 16% last financial year. Similarly, 36% of matters placed before the Courts in 2015–16 involved employers from the food services and accommodation industry.

Workers aged 30 or under were more likely to have lodged the originating dispute, accounting for two in every three disputes that resulted in an Enforceable Undertaking.

The results reflect the Fair Work Ombudsman’s three-year national hospitality campaign, which commenced in 2012 with a wave of audits of pubs, bars, taverns and accommodation houses, followed by restaurants, cafes and catering businesses and finally, takeaway food outlets.

The three phases of the campaign resulted in 801 employers found to have short-changed 4540 of their employees in excess of $2.342 million and only a 52% compliance rate with workplace laws.

The agency’s website provides a wide range of free tools and resources aimed at helping both employers and employees meet their obligations in the workplace.