Employee records keeping – termination of employment

Excellent question Mr X and yes, you have employee records keeping requirements for any termination you action.

As well as your obligations to hold accurate and complete records for all employees (e.g.: time worked, wages paid and the issuing of pay slips within a designated timeframe) there are specific requirements around the records you must hold when an employee is dismissed.

Diving straight into the horse’s mouth, the Fair Work Regulations 2009-Reg 3.40 states:

For subsection 535(1) of the Act, if an employee’s employment is terminated, a kind of employee record that the employer must make and keep is a record that sets out:

(a) whether the employment was terminated:
(i) by consent; or
(ii) by notice; or
(iii) summarily; or
(iv) in some other manner (specifying the manner); and

(b) the name of the person who acted to terminate the employment.

This is something worth getting right. The Fair Work Ombudsman may pursue a number of enforcement actions in relation to contraventions of record-keeping and pay slip obligations. The maximum fines payable from an infringement notice are:

• $1260 per contravention – for an individual
• $6300 per contravention – for a corporation

If an employer’s failure to meet record-keeping obligations is serious, wilful or repetitive, Fair Work Inspectors may recommend the matter be taken to court, with maximum penalties available to a court for record-keeping and pay slip contraventions being:

• $12,600 per contravention for an individual
• $63,000 per contravention for a corporation

But wait. There’s more…a court may find that record-keeping contraventions are ‘serious contraventions’ if they occurred knowingly and as part of a systematic pattern of conduct. The maximum penalties for serious contraventions are:

• $126,000 per contravention for an individual
• $630,000 per contravention for a corporation

Scared? Worried? Confused? Relax…Bare Bones Consulting can assist with Fair Work Act interpretation as it applies to your organisation.

We also specialise in tailoring employment documents, policies and processes to your business, people and operating environment. We have a simple Employee Termination form that covers your employee records keeping obligations and makes life simple. Need only one thing? We can help. Need a lot? Can do that too…check it out here.