When an employee leaves their employment, there are numerous occasions when a dispute arises over an employees entitlements and their final termination payment. An employee may contact the Fair Work Ombudsman, allege that they have not been paid their full entitlements upon termination and cause a Fair Work Ombudsman investigation and possible audit.

As part of an hoteliers risk management process it is recommended that an annual reconciliation of employee’s entitlements should be undertaken by all AHA (Vic) members, preferably around the end of May/June each year so that any adjustments can be made before the end of June.

This annual reconciliation process results in an agreement, in writing, between the employer and the employee in relation to personal leave, annual leave and days/time in lieu as at a specific date.

The reconciliation also mutually agrees an employee’s commencement date with the employer – an issue which regularly arises when there may be a need for a long service leave or pro rata long service leave calculation.

A draft reconciliation letter is provided to members (available in the member section of the website under documents) to assist in annual employee entitlement reconciliation and we encourage employers to consider this process.

This is also the time to consider a reconciliation of annualised salary employees in accordance with clause 27.1 of the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010 wherein the onus is on the employer to ensure the employees employed under an annualised salary are not paid less than the minimum award entitlements for their job classification. This reconciliation of annualised salary employee time sheets against the award entitlements should be undertaken on at least an annual basis.

The AHA (Vic) team would be happy to discuss these recommendations with you.

Regards,

John Sweetman 
Workplace Relations Advisor