World Vision Australia Back Pays $6 Million in Staff Underpayments

Incident Overview

World Vision Australia has rectified a significant underpayment issue, back-paying more than $6 million to thousands of current and former employees. The underpayments were self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2019 after an internal review revealed compliance issues.

Key Points:

• World Vision Australia has back-paid over $6 million to staff due to underpayments.
• 3,000 current and former employees were affected, with individual back-payments ranging from less than $50 to $84,394.
• The underpayments were due to compliance issues discovered during an internal review.
• The charity has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure future compliance.

Details of the Underpayments
The underpayments occurred due to compliance issues within World Vision Australia’s payroll system. These issues resulted in employees being underpaid their minimum entitlements, including minimum wages, penalty rates, overtime, leave entitlements, and allowances. The affected employees included both casual and salaried staff across the country.

Remediation and Future Compliance
The charity has back-paid the affected employees a total of $4.6 million in wages and entitlements, along with an additional $1.4 million in superannuation and interest. They have also made payments to the Fair Work Ombudsman on behalf of former employees who could not be located.

World Vision Australia has entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman, committing to implement several measures to ensure future compliance. These include implementing a new payroll system, conducting annual audits, and providing a report on their progress to the Ombudsman.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth acknowledged the charity’s cooperation and commitment to rectifying the underpayments. Shestated, “Under the Enforceable Undertaking, World Vision Australia has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure all its workers are paid correctly.”