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Modern awards should be clearer and easier to apply, to help employers avoid inadvertent underpayments, and the Australian Government should clarify the availability of a due diligence defence in criminal matters, a wage theft inquiry has recommended.

"The committee learned that the complexity of the industrial relations system is a significant factor contributing to wage underpayment (and overpayment), with... even courts struggling to interpret particular entitlements," the Senate Education and Employment References Committee says in its report, tabled in Parliament today.

"On the evidence, the offence is directed at a narrow category of deliberate conduct, while the structural driver of most underpayment, being the complexity of the modern award and enterprise agreement system, remains unaddressed," states committee chair, NSW Senator Maria Kovacic...