ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said calls to the ARA's Employment Relations telephone advisory service in June were four times higher than a typical month as retailers tried to comply with their new wage obligations.

"While the phase-in of the modern award spreads wage bill increase over five years, it also adds to the complexity of calculating wage payments. Without turning to experts for help, retailers are struggling to understand just what they need to pay their staff.

"Over the past month and even more so in the last couple of days, out of all the questions we receive from retailers the clear stand-out queries relate to new base rates of pay, casual loadings, penalties and allowances. There's a lot of confusion out there.

"The five-year incremental transition between old state-based awards and the modern award system is a highly complex process - there is a lot for employers to consider. It's not only the phase-in of the new General Retail Industry Award rates, penalties and loadings beginning this week, it's also the phase-out of all the state-based award entitlements and the $26 per week increase to minimum wage.
 
"Most retailers don't have the in-house employment relations support needed to ensure they meet their obligations and they're relying on employer associations to take the headache out of modern award transitions," Zimmerman said.

To manage retail demand for wage advice throughout the transitional period and to help retailers avoid time-consuming and complicated manual calculations, ARA has developed up-to-date and comprehensive online wage transition tools that set out: which classification from the old awards relate to which new award classification; wage-rate obligations for every state and territory by classification; every type of allowance, loading and penalty for every retail wage category in the General Retail Industry Award; and frequently asked questions with worked examples.

"Retailers who need wage assistance and who aren't already ARA members should call 1300 368 041 or email membership@retail.org.aubefore Thursday to avoid potential penalties for non-compliance," Zimmerman said.

For over 105 years, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has been the peak industry body in Australia's $292 billion retail sector which employs over 1.5 million people. As an incorporated Federal employer body under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 and with a range of member services including business consulting, policy development, advocacy and education, the ARA promotes and protects over 5000 independent and national retailers throughout Australia. Visit www.retail.org.auor call 1300 368 041.


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