In this episode of The PAX Hospitality Podcast, Leon Kennedy sits down with HR and people & culture specialist Kate Hemat-Siraky to unpack the relatively unsexy but absolutely critical foundation of a healthy hospitality business: compliance. Sitting in the Consistency layer of the PAX Pyramid (after Identity and Product, before Promo), this conversation is about getting your “house in order” so your people, finance and culture have something solid to stand on.

Together, they walk through the core building blocks of HR compliance for venues: choosing the correct awards (or awards, plural), getting classifications right, building watertight employment contracts, and pairing them with clear policies and job profiles – Kate’s “compliance triangle”. From there they explore respect & inclusion, psychosocial safety, and the new “positive duty” to prevent harassment, plus how under-resourcing HR and people functions leaves founders and managers dangerously exposed.

They also dig into the role of tech – time & attendance vs HRIS – and why systems like Deputy, Tanda and Employment Hero only work if they’re configured properly. Kate breaks down the implications of the Fair Work Ombudsman vs Coles/Woolworths decision, why “better off overall” now has to be assessed in the pay period, and what that means for time-in-lieu, overtime and TOIL-heavy rosters. If you’ve ever thought “I don’t have time for compliance”, this episode shows you why you can’t afford not to make time.

Topics covered:

• How HR compliance fits inside the Consistency layer of the PAX Pyramid (identity → product → consistency → promo).
• The compliance triangle: employment contracts, policies/guidelines, and job descriptions/job profiles.
• Awards, classifications, award-free roles and why “don’t assume, do check” is now survival, not semantics.
• Respect at work, psychosocial safety, and the new positive duty to prevent harassment and discrimination.
• Tech, time & attendance, HRIS, and the impact of the Coles & Woolies decision on TOIL, overtime and “in the pay period” compliance.

The PAX Hospitality Podcast is produced by PAX and Craate Creative. Support for this podcast comes from Square and Brunswick Design and Innovation. Our music is produced by Patricia Heath and Mattias Westergren.

PAX acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate. We pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging and to all First Nations People.