Industry super funds pioneer Mavis Robertson says measures need to be implemented to ensure individual work contracts are not used as a means of avoiding payment of the super guarantee.
Robertson used an address to a recent symposium on the Gold Coast to express concern at the impact of individual contracts, particularly in the building and construction industry.
She says a recent study in Queensland revealed that up to 45 per cent of those in the construction industry are participating in some form of contracting as a result of promoting individual work contracts.
“This means the employer is no longer responsible for annual leave, sick leave, workers compensation or superannuation,” she says. “It leaves responsibility with the individual to make his or her own arrangements, including super payments.”
Robertson says that in these circumstances, no-one else knows how many of these workers actually contribute and there is no way of knowing except through an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) audit, but such audits don’t normally extend to sole traders.
“One of the simplest steps to compliance will be if all employers and all sole contractors have to report to the ATO both tax paid and superannuation guarantee contributions paid,” she says.
“Meantime, workers in this situation, if they do not make provision for superannuation, will be deprived of an estimated $150,000 (in today’s dollars) in retirement,” Robertson says.
She says that, by contrast, where workers in Queensland have signed collective agreements negotiated by their unions, they will receive an employer payment of $97 a week in 2003, rising to $125 by 2005 while workers will be making a $9 contribution in 2003, $18 in 2004 and $27 in 2005.
“This means they will have achieved a 15 per cent contribution to their retirement savings account,” Robertson says.
