The Fair Work Ombudsman has announced that a record $532 million in unpaid wages and entitlements was recovered for more than 384,000 workers in 2021-22.
Key points:
- Deputy Fair Work Ombudsman Kristen Hannah says the recovered wages are good news for workers and compliant businesses
- More than half of the recoveries – almost $279 million – came from large corporate employers
- The Fair Work Ombudsman currently has about 50 investigations underway into corporates that have self-reported underpayments
- The amount is more than three times that of last year’s figure.
“It’s clearly a problem,” AMP senior economist Diana Mousina said.
Deputy Fair Work Ombudsman Kristen Hannah announced the figures in a speech to the Policy-Influence-Reform (PIR) conference in Canberra on Monday afternoon and said they were good news for workers and compliant businesses.
“The Fair Work Ombudsman’s strengthened compliance and enforcement approach has seen another record amount of back-paid wages for Australian workers in the last financial year,” Ms Hannah said.
On the other hand, it’s also an indication of how large the problem of worker underpayment has become.
More than half of the recoveries – almost $279 million – came from large corporate employers.
In June, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) took Woolworths to court in relation to “major underpayments” of its salaried managers.
But Woolworths is just one of a long list of major employers that have underpaid their workers, including Wesfarmers, Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank, Super Retail Group, Michael Hill Jewellers and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Fair Work Ombudsman currently has about 50 investigations underway into large corporates that have self-reported underpayments, including some of Australia’s largest companies.
“I don’t know how much longer it will take to resolve,” Ms Mousina said.
“[But] I don’t think it’s part of normal part of working in Australia.”
In 2021-22, the federal workplace regulator filed a record 137 litigations.
This was close to a doubling of the number of new matters put into court the year before.
