Qantas is set to directly apologise to 638 employees who were underpaid $7.1 million between June 2011 and June 2019, and place public notices on its intranet, website external link icon and its Facebook page for one month, as well as in national newspapers.
The FWO investigated Qantas after the airline self-reported that it had incorrectly paid some of its marketing and administrative staff in accordance with the terms of individual contracts of employment, rather than the relevant enterprise agreements that covered and applied to them.
As a result, employees did not receive the minimum terms of the relevant enterprise agreements, including minimum wages, overtime, annual leave entitlements and superannuation, which led to underpayments and record-keeping breaches.
To date, Qantas has back-paid $7.1 million to 638 employees, and has committed to rectifying any further underpayments by 24 April 2020. Qantas will then make a contrition payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund equal to 5.5 per cent of its underpayments.
Under the EU, an expert will conduct its own review of the underpayments, which is due to be completed by 14 October 2020, and report its results directly to the FWO. Any further underpayments identified by the expert will be back-paid with interest, an additional payment of $2,000 to affected employees and attract a higher contrition payment of 7 per cent.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said that the regulator considered an EU appropriate after Qantas proactively notified the FWO and fully co-operated with the investigation.
“Qantas has come forward and admitted to breaching the Fair Work Act for several years and significantly underpaying hundreds of its employees several million dollars,” Ms Parker said.
“The EU creates a robust process where an independent expert will verify that employee back payments are correctly calculated and paid by Qantas. Three further pay audits will also be conducted by an independent auditor, which will benefit Qantas’ current and future employees.
“This independent analysis will reduce the burden on the Fair Work Ombudsman, and subsequent cost to the taxpayer, for ensuring that Qantas back pays its staff correctly.”
Under the EU, Qantas will also set up an independent employee hotline and complaints system within 30 days.
