Govt urged: legislate to formalise sacrifice

The Federal Government is being urged to introduce legislation to formalise superannuation salary sacrifice arrangements in circumstances where some funds are claiming that too much power is being left in the hands of employers.

The chief executive of Legalsuper, the fund covering people working in the legal profession, Andrew Proebstl, said the Federal Government’s claims it introduced the biggest-ever reforms to superannuation look hollow when appropriate salary sacrifice changes have not been made.

He said if the Government is serious about reforming super it must introduce comprehensive legislation that covers all areas of superannuation, including salary sacrifice.

“Currently, employers are not obligated to make salary sacrifice available to their employees,” Proebstl said. “Those employers who do make salary sacrifice available to their employees would be greatly assisted by the certainty of legislation.”

He said where employers offered salary sacrifice, the lack of legislation governing eligibility and the way salary sacrifice is applied had created an uneven and sometimes unfair playing field.

“While salary sacrifice is supposed to be about employees deciding what to do with their income, employers currently make the key decisions about any income their employees elect to salary sacrifice,” Proebstl said.