The Tax Office (ATO) has won a major victory for Australia's casual workforce after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal found employers must pay superannuation entitlements based on the actual hours worked.
Deputy Tax Commissioner Leo Bator says the decision – a result of action taken on behalf of an employee by the ATO – effectively prohibits employers paying the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) for each casual employee based on minimum hours required, if those working hours are regularly exceeded.
"The AAT has found that if it was ‘normal, regular, customary or usual for the employee to work more than the minimum stipulated number of shifts', then those hours should be considered ‘ordinary hours of work' when calculating the employer's SG liability in respect of each employee," Bator says.
"This means casual workers are effectively treated the same as full-time or part-time workers for SG purposes."
For more information, either call the ATO's Superannuation Helpline on 13 10 20 or visit the website at
www.ato.gov.au/super.