Do you have to pay employees to attend team meetings?

Yes, all employees, casual, part time and permanent, are to be paid to attend team meetings. Fair Work is clear on this.

A newsagency employee contacted me last week to ask whether they are supposed to be paid to attend team meetings at the business. They had been with the business for three years and had always not been paid or team meetings. A friend at university told them they should be paid. This is what got them asking me.

The situation is exacerbated by the need for them to travel 45 minutes to and from the shop. This makes it a three hour commitment to attend a meeting.

I suggested they contact Fair Work if their employer said no when they asked them, explaining what I understood but advising that it is best is FairWork advised them.

The challenge for the person who contacted me is they feared losing their job if they asked their employer to be paid. This led to a deeper discussion about the workplace and their situation. The discussion revealed other challenges: no regular payslip, being paid at the wrong level for the work allocated to them and the requirement they pay for uniforms.

I explained the law as I understood it and again suggested they contact Fair Work. If what I was told was true, there are too many problems I think to navigate this by talking to the employer.

After the call I did a quick calculation and figured the employer could be entitled to thousands of dollars.

Next time you host a team meeting, ensure people are paid or compensated in a way that is 100% acceptable to them, without any pressure from you.