Why this is worth doing now
More has changed in Australian employment law in the last three years than in the previous decade, and most of it puts obligations on employers.
- 1 Jan 2025 — intentional underpayment became a criminal offence
- 26 Aug 2024 — the casual employee definition changed
- 26 Aug 2024 — the employee choice pathway for casual conversion
- 26 Aug 2024 / 2025 — the right to disconnect
- Civil penalties for underpayment increased substantially
- Family and domestic violence became a protected attribute
Most employers we review are not deliberately doing anything wrong. They are operating on contracts drafted years ago, against an award they have never read closely, with policies downloaded from the internet. That was a manageable risk once. Since criminal wage theft provisions commenced, it is a different proposition.
What the health check covers
- Award and enterprise agreement coverage
- Classification of each role under the award
- Employment contracts — current and enforceable
- Casual arrangements against the new definition
- Set-off and annualised salary arrangements
- Independent contractor arrangements
- Policies, and whether they are actually applied
- Record-keeping and payslip compliance
- Restraints and confidentiality provisions
- Performance management and termination processes
Two things we check first
Award coverage and classification. Almost every underpayment we see traces back to one of these: an employer who believed no award applied, or who classified a role at the wrong level. Both compound quietly over years.
Whether your set-off clause works. Paying above award is not a defence unless the contract properly sets off the higher rate against award entitlements. A poorly drafted clause means you may have paid extra and still owe.
How it works
What we typically find
- Contracts referring to superseded awards
- Casuals who no longer meet the statutory definition
- Set-off clauses that do not do what was intended
- Annualised salaries below the award for the hours worked
- Contractors who are arguably employees
- Policies that are not applied, creating a standard not met
- Missing or non-compliant payslips and records
- Restraints so broad they would fail entirely
The most common single finding is a set-off clause that does not work. Employers pay well above award, assume that covers everything, and discover the contract never said so in the terms required.
If we find an underpayment
Get advice before you self-report or start back-paying. That is not about concealment — it is that how a rectification is calculated, documented and communicated materially affects the outcome, and a well-managed rectification is treated very differently from a poorly managed one.
The criminal wage theft provisions target intentional conduct, not honest mistakes, and a voluntary compliance code applies to small business. An employer who identifies an issue and addresses it properly is in a fundamentally different position from one who ignores it.
What it costs
- Fixed fee, confirmed before we start
- Scoped to your headcount and role types
- Written report included
- Debrief call included
- Remedial work quoted separately, if you want it
- No obligation to proceed further
Frequently asked questions
A fixed-scope review of your award coverage and role classifications, employment contracts, casual arrangements against the current statutory definition, set-off and annualised salary arrangements, contractor arrangements, policies, and record-keeping. You receive a written report ranked by risk and a debrief call.
Because intentional underpayment became a criminal offence on 1 January 2025, civil penalties for underpayment increased substantially, and the casual employee definition and conversion pathway both changed in 2024 and 2025. Contracts drafted before those changes may no longer reflect the law.
A set-off clause allows an above-award payment to be applied against award entitlements such as overtime and penalties. Paying above award is not by itself a defence to an underpayment claim: without a properly drafted set-off clause, an employer may have paid more than required and still owe award entitlements on top.
Get advice before self-reporting or starting back-payments. How a rectification is calculated, documented and communicated materially affects the outcome. The criminal provisions target intentional conduct rather than honest mistakes, and an employer who identifies and properly addresses an issue is in a very different position from one who ignores it.
No. The health check is a fixed-scope, fixed-fee review with a written report. What you do with the findings is entirely your decision, and any remedial work is quoted separately if you want it.
This page is general information about the law as it applies in Queensland, current as at 2026. It is not legal advice and does not take your circumstances into account. Figures set by regulation are indexed and change. Speak to one of our lawyers before acting.