Getting wage compliance right | The HR & Payroll partnership
About this Event
Wage compliance failures and how to prevent them.
The risk landscape has fundamentally changed. Since January 2025, intentional underpayment became a criminal offence under Australian Fair Work laws, carrying multi-million dollar fines and potential J*il time for individuals. With the first wave of criminal investigations emerging, increased regulatory scrutiny through ATO and Fair Work Ombudsman data matching, and new obligations like Payday Super (July 2026) and Gender Pay Gap reporting (April 2026), the stakes have never been higher.
What You'll Learn
What does good risk governance look like?
This session goes beyond theory to show how wage compliance failures actually occur inside organisations. You'll gain:
Real-world insights into common failure points
- Award interpretation errors
- Salary vs award mismatches
- Time and attendance gaps
- System configuration issues
- Role misclassification
Practical prevention strategies
- How to bridge the gap between HR and payroll teams
- Building a single source of truth for compliance
- Using data and audits proactively
- Creating strong cross-team processes
- Building a compliance culture
- Insights into what good risk governance look like
Leave with actionable tools and frameworks including a prevention playbook you can implement immediately.
Who Should Attend
- HR and People & Culture Leaders
- Payroll Managers and Specialists
- Finance Leaders and CFOs
- Professionals in high-risk industries
- Business Owners
Expert Panel
Neha Sharma, Director of People and Governance| NextSense
Neha is part of a complex non-profit organisation. Formerly a partner at a boutique law firm heading the employment law division, Neha is an expert in industrial relations and award interpretation. In the session Neha will focus on the legal and governance perspective of wage compliance. She will discuss the flow-on effects of incorrect award interpretation, the challenges of time and attendance (T&A) systems, and will share a practical checklist for position classification.
Kirsty Martin, Payroll & Compliance Lead | Transurban
Has a background in automated audit technology. Previously part of the payroll advisory team at PwC, Kirsty has deep expertise in compliance regarding Payday Super and payroll systems. Kirsty’s focus in the session is prevention strategies and process mapping. She will focus on how to document decision points to remove "gut calls" from payroll, ensuring manual interventions are eliminated and that data-driven processes guarantee correct entitlements.
Jessie Fraser, Director, Payroll Advisory | PwC Australia
For over five years, Jessie has specialised in wage remediations for Australia’s largest employers, managing long-term, complex quantification projects and employee disclosures. During the session she will focus on remediation and future technology. She will discuss how to quantify failures, communication strategies for affected employees, and good risk governance. She will also touch on the risks and opportunities of AI and automation in payroll compliance.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
AUD 0.00
