The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has found that 10 security guards who worked at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 were underpaid.
The guards have received more than $24,000 in unpaid wages following an audit of providers for the event.
The FWO conducted the audits in response to requests for assistance from security guards who were concerned about receiving their correct pay and entitlements.
Fair Work Ombudsman, Sandra Parker said the FWO audited nine employers providing security services to the games, including principal providers and sub-contractors, and found none were compliant with workplace laws.
“The consistent issue we discovered was guards not being paid until well after they had completed their shifts,” Ms Parker said.
“In some instances guards had to wait months to get paid properly,” she said.
“This was a breach of employers’ obligations under the Fair Work Act to pay their employees on time.”
She said the delays were caused by shortcomings in the electronic record keeping system used to record work hours, which meant guards’ shifts had to be manually reconciled before they could be paid.
She said the FWO also found two security providers failed to properly pay overtime, weekend and public holiday penalty rates, which led to the underpayments for 10 guards.
“Three of the audited security providers also did not keep proper employment records or provide correct pay slips,” she said.
Ms Parker said that in addition to recovering lost wages for affected guards, the FWO issued four infringement notices, totalling $12,600 in penalties for record-keeping and pay slip breaches and sent contravention letters to all the audited businesses that required them to take action to rectify their non-compliance.
She said there was one formal caution, putting a security provider on notice about possible legal action for any future breaches.
