Poor record keeping leads to underpaid employees

As has been prominent in news items over the last few years, sometimes employers fail to properly keep employee records. This lack of records makes it difficult for an employee to claim underpayments when it becomes clear an underpayment has occurred.

Record My Hours app developed by Fair Work Ombudsman

While up to now employees could manually record their hours in a diary or on a calendar, the Fair Work Ombudsman has made it easier with an app that can be placed on an employee’s phone.

The Record My Hours app makes it quick and easy for employees to record and store the hours they work, plus other information about their employment.

This information can be accessed immediately if an issue about their pay arises and provides a clear record when discussing entitlements with an employer. Users can export the data via email to save it somewhere securely, share it with their employer or with the Fair Work Ombudsman if they have a question about entitlements.

Automatic recording of start and finish times

The app uses the phone’s location services and “geofencing” technology to let users set their workplace location and automatically record when they start and finish work, based on their location.

Manual recording available

Automatic recording may not work for all job types, such as people working in places with no mobile or Wi-Fi coverage or people who travel a lot for work, so manual recording has been incorporated to cater for this situation.

Piece rate options included

Employees being paid piece rates will find the app useful too.

They can:

• record information about their piecework agreement and the amount they picked, packed, pruned or made;
• identify where they worked when the address is uncertain.

An employee can also:

• add rosters to a calendar;
• receive notification reminders about upcoming shifts;
• take photos of employee records like payslips;
• backup information saved to iCloud or other servers and recover it easily.

Getting the Record My Hours app

The app is available in 18 languages and can be downloaded from:

Apple’s ‘App Store‘
 

 

Legal help available

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Please note that this article has been prepared by Margaret Miller, partner of Bell Legal Group, for information purposes only. It is not legal advice nor should it be relied upon as such.