Aussie businesses taking risks when it comes to compliance

Aussie small businesses are taking legal risks by not having appropriate workplace contracts and policies in place, according to a report released by cloud legal services provider LawPath.

The company conducted a survey* of more than 500 hundred small businesses through its online Legal Health Check — a comprehensive questionnaire that helps business owners understand their level of compliance, whether they operate as a company, sole trader or partnership — and found 40% do not have employment contracts, while 75% did not have adequate workplace policies such as drug, alcohol or social media policies.

Of the surveyed businesses, more than half use hired contractors, but nearly 17% did not have contractor agreements.

Other results showed that around 63% of businesses surveyed conduct business online and 22% of these did not have website terms and conditions, while 19% did not have a privacy policy.

LawPath said the Legal Health Check results are being released to raise awareness of the often simple but very important legal requirements placed on small businesses.

“Small businesses are faced with numerous regulations and compliance requirements imposed by different levels of government, which is often costly and time consuming,” said Damien Andreasen, CEO of LawPath.

“In fact, it’s estimated that small businesses spend, on average, five hours a week complying with government regulatory requirements. The complexity has often meant that many small businesses are non-compliant.

“But the ramifications of not being compliant are just too big to ignore. It’s important that all businesses — big and small — review their legals to ensure they are compliant.”

Any business can take a free Legal Health Check here.

*Information from this survey has been gathered from data entered through LawPath’s website — http://sem.lawpath.com.au/lhc/. The Legal Health Check surveyed 518 businesses operating across Australia. Of the respondents, 62% operate as a company, 21% as sole traders, 9% as partnerships and 8% were undecided. The results were gathered from March to October 2015.