“Nothing sharpens the mind,” a leading barrister says, like the threat of serious financial penalties or imprisonment. Under the newly legislated wage theft laws, businesses need to ensure their payroll and other administrative processes meet the requisite standard. In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Sydney-based barrister Ian Neil SC to discuss why employment and industrial relations law is such a meaningful vocational path for him, what the new wage theft laws are and how they came about, the most common reasons why employers will fail to comply with existing law, and why old excuses will no longer fly. Neil also delves into the consequences of non-compliance with the new legislative landscape, community perceptions about the new laws, the questions businesses must ask of themselves in getting their systems up to scratch, the role of HR in ensuring compliance, how HR can balance such duties against other priorities, and he also fleshes out other key aspects of the new Closing Loopholes legislation.