Aged care and community services operator Uniting NSW and ACT will back pay employees $3.36 million after it found more than 9500 workers were underpaid, including 870 workers in Canberra.
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Uniting self reported the underpayments which took place from 2013 to 2019. The underpayments were identified following a review after complaints from staff.
The underpayments came after Uniting made errors in providing laundry, uniform and vehicle allowances. As well, the aged care operator failed to provide more than 2500 shift workers with an extra week of annual leave they were entitled to each year.
Many of the workers who were underpaid included front line carers and community disability services workers.
Uniting runs three aged care homes in the ACT - two in Weston and one in Gordon. It also provides home and community care.
Uniting entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman which requires the organisation pay back all money owed by August 15 but Fair Work said most of the employees had been back paid.
The enforceable undertaking would require Uniting to self-fund an audit of its rectification program and the organisation's compliance with workplace laws over the next two years.
Uniting will also have to fund an independent organisation to operate a hotline for four months for workers to make inquiries about entitlements or underpayments.
"Uniting demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying all underpayments owed to its workers. The enforceable undertaking commits the aged care operator to stringent measures to protect its employees," Fair Work ombudsman Sandra Parker said.
In a statement, Uniting NSW and ACT apologised and said the errors were due to "outdated manual processes" and system configuration errors.
"We are taking steps to ensure these errors do not take place again by reviewing our controls, systems and procedures," the statement said.
"We apologise for the errors and any impact they may have had on our people."