NAB underpays workers

Union calls for audit as 1500 staff short-changed

NATIONAL Australia Bank staff have been urged to review their pay after the bank said it had found underpayments to about 1500 employees.

The Finance Sector Union yesterday called on members at NAB to take part in an urgent audit to determine the extent of the staff underpayment issue.

This follows the bank last week saying it had set up an independent investigation into payments to current and former employees.

NAB group executive for people and culture, Susan Ferrier,

last week emailed staff to say the bank had hired law firm King & Wood Mallesons and audit firm PwC to conduct a review of problems with its payroll system.

The lender identified payment problems to about 1500 staff and is finalising a payout totalling $1.3 million, including superannuation and interest, as compensation.

“We take paying our colleagues their full entitlements extremely seriously and it is unacceptable and simply not good enough that we have not always delivered on that promise,” Ms Ferrier said in the email.

“I regret these errors and apologise.”

The issue mainly relates to group 3 and 4 staff being rostered for a 40-hour week instead of the contracted 38 hours.

FSU’s Wendy Streets said this had been a long-running issue and union members at

NAB were being asked to document any concerns they had about their pay, which would then be passed on to investigators.

She estimates the number of underpaid people could far exceed 1500.

“The FSU previously sought a legal opinion which justified our concerns about underpayment problems at the bank and payment of contracted workers is now one of several significant issues which will be investigated by consultants PwC and KWM,” she said.

Australia’s third-largest bank is the latest major company to investigate staff underpayments.

Others that have had to pay back millions of dollars to staff in recent months include Qantas, Woolworths, Wesfarmers and Super Retail, as wage scandals have particularly engulfed the hospitality and retail sectors in recent years.