Financial Planning for Abattoir and Meat Processing Workers

We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.

Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:

• Property & Investing
• Career & Income
• Tax Strategy
• Insurance & Protecting Your Family
• Super & SMSF
• Wealth & Investments
• Life Events & Changes
• Business & Wealth
• Legacy & Future Wealth
• Retirement Planning

This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.

Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.

We start with the part you can count on. That might be your base pay, or any minimum earnings set for incentive pay if your pay follows an incentive system. Any output pay and overtime above it can then be planned as extras, so a strong week goes to a goal you choose rather than everyday costs.

If you’re on daily hire, one award, for example, says you’re employed by the day or shift, so we’d plan from the days you can count on. A savings buffer sized from your regular costs can help with days the plant doesn’t run. We can build the budget with you from your own payslips.

Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.

What an accountant does

• Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
• Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
• Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
• Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction

What a financial adviser does

• Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
• Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
• Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
• Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
• Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations

Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.

Where they work together

• Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
• Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
• Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
• Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.

Fair Work says the Meat Award covers employers that manufacture, process or retail meat, and their employees who fit its classifications. A retail outlet is covered only where it’s a stand-alone business, not part of a supermarket or similar business. The award also covers labour hire businesses and their employees placed with an organisation in the meat industry.

It doesn’t cover businesses that slaughter, process or sell poultry, game or game birds, or meat inspectors, or employers and employees covered by certain other awards. So coverage depends on your employer’s business, not only your job title, and an enterprise agreement may apply instead if one covers your workplace. Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool can help you check. Whichever applies, we plan with you from the pay you receive.

Not every part of your pay is treated the same way. The ATO counts piece rates for work done during ordinary hours, along with casual loading and shift penalties, when super is worked out. Overtime isn’t counted, provided your ordinary hours of work are clearly identified in an award or agreement.

If part of your pay is worked out by output, your employer or fund can confirm how super is calculated on it. Comparing each payslip with your fund statement shows what has been paid, and a gap can be raised with your employer or the ATO. We can then plan extra contributions with you, if you’d like to make them.

Unless your agreement or contract has its own rules, Fair Work says the Act allows a stand-down only when you can’t do useful work for a cause your employer can’t be held responsible for, such as lack of supply, not just because work is quiet. Pay isn’t required, and Fair Work notes paid sick leave can’t be used during an unpaid stand-down under the Act.

A shutdown can mean directed annual leave if your award or registered agreement allows it. On closure, National Employment Standards redundancy pay needs a year’s continuous service, the national workplace relations system and an employer with at least 15 employees. It’s paid at base rate, without incentive-based payments, loadings, allowances, overtime or penalty rates. Casuals don’t get it, and an award or agreement can differ.

A new role can change your pay and your week. Under one award, for example, boners sit at a higher classification level than slicers, and in a processing plant pay may be worked out under an incentive system. Points to plan:

• Any training period, and how your pay is worked out during it
• A budget built on base pay, with any output pay as an extra
• Income protection, which is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury
• How a fund or policy records your job, which is worth reading again when your work changes

We can talk through your cover with you before the move, if you hold some.

If you’re paid under an incentive system, one award, for example, requires its terms in writing in a form you can readily understand, and Fair Work can answer questions about pay and awards.

A financial adviser looks at what the money then does: a budget built on base pay, super on each payslip, savings for days the plant doesn’t run, personal insurance and the goals your work could fund over time. We can plan with you from the pay you receive, whatever the system behind it.

Any paid leave can help first. Fair Work notes casuals don’t get most types of paid leave, so if you’re casual, savings matter more.

If you’re eligible, a workers compensation claim is separate: each scheme sets who qualifies, its own rules for psychological injury and who decides any claim.

Income protection and TPD look at whether an illness or injury, physical or psychological, stops you working as the policy defines it. Each policy’s terms shape how a claim is assessed and can limit or exclude mental health conditions.

We can help you understand how cover and its conditions treat a mental health condition linked to a serious incident at work.

Free, confidential support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Yes. Planning can start with when you’d like to step back, and whether a lighter role such as quality assurance or training others could become a stage of its own. If you’ve worked across several plants or agencies, your super may sit in more than one fund, so it helps to bring it into one picture.

In stronger years, your own contributions can be planned within the concessional cap, the yearly limit on before-tax (concessional) contributions, which is indexed. We’d build the plan with you on super and savings. You can read more about our retirement advice.

We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:

• Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
• Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
• Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.

Yes. Just started at a plant, years in the boning room or working as an inspector: a first conversation starts with how you work today.

There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.

It helps to bring a few recent payslips, each super statement, insurance documents if you hold cover, and anything from your employer about how you’re paid. You can meet with us by video or phone, or face to face at one of our offices.