World Vision Australia signs Enforceable Undertaking
World Vision Australia Pty Ltd has back-paid staff more than $6 million, including interest and superannuation, and has signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The charity, which has offices in Melbourne and Sydney, self-reported underpayments to the FWO in December 2019 after an internal review identified compliance issues.
These compliance issues resulted in the underpayment of employees’ lawful minimum entitlements including minimum wages, penalty rates and overtime, leave entitlements and allowances.
In total, World Vision Australia underpaid over 3,000 current and former employees more than $4.6 million in wages and entitlements. It has back-paid this amount, plus more than $1.4 million in superannuation and interest.
Underpaid employees worked in every state and territory in Australia, except for the Northern Territory, with the majority based in Victoria and New South Wales. Both salaried and casual employees were underpaid.
Individual back-payments ranged from less than $50 to $84,394. The average back-payment is about $1,900, including superannuation and interest.
For more than 1,000 former employees it was not able to locate, World Vision Australia paid amounts it owed to the Fair Work Ombudsman as unclaimed monies. Workers can use the search function on FWO’s website to check if amounts are owing to them.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said an EU was appropriate as World Vision Australia had cooperated with the FWO’s investigation and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying underpayments and making changes to ensure future compliance.
“Under the Enforceable Undertaking, World Vision Australia has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure all its workers are paid correctly. These measures include implementing a new time and wages payroll system and commissioning, at its own cost, at least one annual audit to check it is meeting all employee entitlements,” Ms Booth said.
The EU also requires World Vision Australia to provide a report to the FWO on its progress in implementing improvements to its payroll and corporate governance systems; run an independent employee hotline to take any workplace relations queries for three months; and publish and display notices about the EU and its contraventions on its website and in its offices in Melbourne and Sydney.
Employers and employees can visit www.fairwork.gov.au or call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 for free advice and assistance. An interpreter service is available on 13 14 50.
Employees can also seek information from their employer and their union if they are a union member.
