Organisation also signs Enforceable Undertaking with FWO
World Vision Australia has back-paid more than $6 million, including interest and superannuation, to over 3,000 underpaid current and former employees.
The back-payment includes $4.6 million in wages and entitlements, as well as $1.4 million in superannuation and interest, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).
The average back-payment is about $1,900, including superannuation and interest. Individual underpayments ranged between less than $50 and $84,394.
World Vision Australia also paid an amount to the FWO as unclaimed monies after more than a thousand former employees couldn't be located.
According to the FWO, World Vision Australia self-reported the underpayments when it discovered compliance issues after an internal review.
The issues resulted in underpayments of employees' minimum entitlements, including minimum wages, penalty rates and overtime, leave entitlements, and allowances, according to the FWO.
Affected employees included casual and salaried staff, majority of whom were in Victoria and New South Wales.
Enforceable Undertaking signed
In addition to the back-payment, World Vision Australia also signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the FWO.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the EU mandates World Vision Australia to implement "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," Booth said in a statement.
World Vision Australia's other obligations under the EU include:
- Providing a report to the FWO on its progress in implementing improvements to its payroll and corporate governance systems
- Running an independent employee hotline to take any workplace relations queries for three months
- Publishing and displaying notices about the EU and its contraventions on its website and in its offices in Melbourne and Sydney
