Strong action to recover workers’ entitlements

The Australian Government remains committed to taking strong action against employers who fail to meet their employment entitlement obligations, even in insolvency, through its Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) Recovery Program.

Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation, Craig Laundy, said under the FEG Recovery Program the Government had funded recoveries for 105 matters and recovered more than $61 million to date.

“The Turnbull Government is taking strong action to ensure employers are held responsible for paying their workers and that taxpayers are protected from corporate abuse of the FEG scheme,” Minister Laundy said.

“I’m pleased this has already delivered strong results, not just recovering FEG amounts, but also recovering over $2 million in other unpaid entitlements for Australian workers, including superannuation.
“We will keep up the pressure on employers to meet their obligations to employees.”

Under the FEG scheme, the Government provides financial assistance to cover certain employment entitlements left unpaid due to the employer going bankrupt or into liquidation. Unfortunately, some company directors and managers misuse the scheme to shift costs onto the taxpayer when they can and should be met by the employing company.

“The Government started a pilot FEG Recovery Program on 1 July 2015 and due to its early and substantial success clawing back taxpayer money and getting employees their unpaid entitlements, the program was made ongoing from 1 January 2017,” Minister Laundy said.

“In 2018 the Coalition is pushing ahead with changes to the Corporations Act to prevent corporate abuse of the FEG scheme and further strengthen the ability to recover FEG costs.

“Draft legislation will be open for public consultation in the next few months.”

For more information go to: www.jobs.gov.au/feg-recovery-program