Industrial Relations Act 2016

An application may be made for an order that an apparent employer pay an unpaid wages claim.

The application may be made to—

if the total amount claimed is $100,000 or less—the commission or a magistrate; or

otherwise—a magistrate.

The application may be made by—

an outworker; or

an employee organisation of which the outworker is a member, acting for the outworker; or

an inspector.

The application must be made within 6 years after the amount claimed in the application became payable.

The commission or magistrate must order the apparent employer to pay the wages or superannuation contributions claimed unless the apparent employer proves that—

the work was not done; or

an amount claimed is not the correct amount; or

an amount claimed has already been paid.

If the commission or magistrate is satisfied an amount claimed is not the correct amount, the commission or magistrate may order payment of the amount the commission or magistrate is satisfied is payable.

For an order about superannuation contributions, the order must require the amount to be paid to—

the approved superannuation fund; or

a complying superannuation fund; or

a superannuation fund nominated by the outworker; or

an eligible rollover fund; or

if the amount is less than the amount of total benefits than may revert to an employee under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cwlth)—the outworker.

The superannuation contributions must be paid into the unclaimed moneys fund if the outworker does not nominate a superannuation fund for the order, if the order requires a fund to be nominated.

In this section—

superannuation contributions includes an amount equal to the return that would have been accrued in relation to the superannuation contributions had the contributions been properly paid to an approved superannuation fund.