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Whilst the Vehicle Repair, Services and Retail Award 2020 states that employers have 7 days after an employee ceases employment to pay final wages, it does not provide the same period for other entitlements such as annual leave, notice periods and severance pay. These entitlements should be paid on the employee’s final date of employment under the terms of the National Employment Standards. Given that these entitlements must be paid, it may be prudent to also pay outstanding wages on that date to avoid any chance of legal action.
Employers often pay all entitlements in the next pay cycle rather than undertake an out of cycle payment. Whilst this action has in the past generally been considered a “technical breach” of the Award, there has not been much compliance activity in relation to this issue even though there has always been the potential for such actions.
Recently, there has been a few instances where employers have been taken to Court for failing to pay the leave, notice and severance requirements. Significant penalties of up to $18,000.00 have been awarded against employers for breaching this requirement. We are also seeing cases where failure to pay on time is being used as leverage by some plaintiff law firms to encourage settlements of matters such as unfair dismissal claims on threat of prosecution for failing to pay entitlements on time.
Whilst it can be administratively difficult, employees should be aware that this type of action is possible, and so where an employee is owed annual leave, notice in lieu or severance pay, you should ensure those entitlements are paid on the employee’s final day of employment. Failure to do so can expose you to the potential of legal action and significant penalties if that action is successful.
Don’t lose sleep over safety. As an ACWA member, you’ve got direct access to professional WHS experts who understand car wash operations inside out.
On the 1st of December 2025, the Victorian Government passed legislation creating a requirement for employers to identify, assess and control risks associated with psychosocial hazards in the workplace. This legislation has been in place in all other jurisdictions in Australia for a number of years. This requires that a workplace consults with the workforce to identify if there are any psychosocial hazards and then to assess these hazards and apply controls.
There was no grace period for these new laws and WorkSafe Inspectors have been enforcing the new requirements on businesses.
Manual handling continues to be a major cause of workplace injuries and WorkSafe are in the middle of an operation on manual handling and issuing improvement notices to business’s that cannot demonstrate that the workforce has been trained in manual handling.
Common issues found when attending workplace sites – including car wash sites is either missing first aid kits, first aid kits with little stock left in them or items in the first aid kits out of date. It is a requirement for all workplaces to have a current, well stocked first aid kit and to have at least one person in the workplace that is trained in first aid.
