Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

To supplement what I said previously, for irregular payments or amounts contingent upon certain events that may or may not have happened during the employee's rostered hours, an employer may not be liable to pay an employee those amounts. It's difficult to give an absolutely categorical assurance that applies to every single circumstance, but the principle is that if an allowance is ordinarily payable if an employee is at work then they would be paid at a rate that included those allowances. If an allowance is contingent upon certain events then, depending on the regularity and other factors, an employer may not be liable. One example I can give you is that an employee may not be entitled to be paid a travel allowance in relation to a period of paid family and domestic violence leave—if the calculation of the allowance was based on the distance travelled—where the distance that would have been travelled during the period the employee took the leave cannot be ascertained. Of course, as I mentioned when we were discussing this earlier today, it is certainly the department's intention to provide advice to small businesses about how to interpret these new laws. The usual option for small businesses to seek advice from the Fair Work Ombudsman to understand their legal requirements would be available for this as well.