ONE VOICE CAN CHANGE A WORKPLACE

employer should have been paying her a travel allowance each time she travelled further between her own house and a client’s home than she would have travelled to or from her employer’s nearest office when beginning or ending a day.

The travel allowance is a per-kilometre amount for the difference between the two distances, so the dollars were adding up quickly with long-distance travel. And it wasn’t just Ellen who was affected – it was everyone who was travelling to and from clients’ homes first thing in the morning or last thing at the end of a shift.

We took it up with the employer, but they insisted they had it right.

They didn’t. Ellen knew it, and we knew it. So together we took them to the Fair Work Commission, which has the power to force employers to comply with workplace agreements, awards and industrial laws.

Fair Work was quick to agree with us and forced the employer to start paying the travel allowance correctly. The employer was also compelled to do a backpay audit for all their workers who’d been doing travel since the agreement came into effect so they could be paid back what the employer owed.

HACSU was able to help our members check the results of the audit so we could make sure everyone got all of the money that was owed to them.

In the end, the member who raised the question in the first place was paid back almost $6000 that was owed to her.

HACSU was also able to win back tens of thousands of dollars owed to union members at that same employer.

It pays to speak up. All it takes is one person.

If you’re not sure about your pay or your working entitlements, get in touch with HACSU. We’re here to help.