Remember good record keeping protects the employer in the case of a dispute and ensures that an employee's entitlements are correctly met.

There is a legal  obligation for employers to keep a record of the hours worked by their employees , and you MUST be able to clearly demonstrate that your employees earn the minimum wage for every hour worked.

It is also important to ensure that for employees who work irregular hours , they record the hours worked for every working day.  Without an actual record of hours worked, the employer could be accused of failing to pay the minimum wage for an employee who leaves just after the busy calving period and is generous with their assessment of hours worked vs. hours on farm.

If you currently do not operate a system for recording wages and time records create one now and begin using it straight away for every employee.

If you have a system in place ensure it meets the legal requirement.

• The employee's name
• The employee's age, if under 20 years
• The employee's postal address
• The type of work the employee does
• The type of employment agreement, individual or collective
• The title, expiry date and employee classification in any applicable collective agreement
• Where payment is calculated by the hour: the hours and days of employment in each pay period - including the start time, finish time and any non-paid breaks taken
• The wages paid each pay day and method of calculation
• Details of paid leave taken for H&S representative training.