ABC to begin back pay on staff underpayments

Next month ABC will start making payments to employees who were underpaid following a detailed review.

News of staff underpayments became public in January after it identified some casual employees had been underpaid. Of the 2,575 individuals included in the review, 1,886 were found to have been underpaid.

ABC reports the figure totals nearly $23m. Ouch.

Staff who have been notified have reported a wide range of amounts owing, including around $7,500 for four months casual work and more than $40,000 for around two years.

“We are sincerely sorry that this happened and deeply regret the impact it has had on our people. This error should not have occurred,” ABC said in a statement.

“The underpayments resulted from the practice in some areas of the ABC of paying casual employees flat rates of pay designed to be high enough to compensate for penalty rates and overtime provided for by the Enterprise Agreement (EA). In some cases the flat rates were insufficient to do this and resulted in people being paid less than they were entitled to.”

The ABC notified the Fair Work Ombudsman of the issue in December last year and has been liaising with the Fair Work Ombudsman, the CPSU and the MEAA.

“Without these union members coming forward, the union wouldn’t have been able to conduct the investigation and produce the report which exposed this issue,” the CPSU’s ABC section secretary Sinddy Ealy said.

ABC is continuing to have discussions with the Fair Work Ombudsman and the unions.