Sydney dad says he is furious over 18-month delay at former workplace D365 Group

It’s been 18 months since this Sydney dad quit his job and he claims that he’s still owed $45,000 from his former employer.

It’s been 18 months since David Wakeman quit his job and he claims he’s still owed $45,000 from his former employer.

According to documents sighted by news.com.au, the Sydney dad is owed 2.5 weeks of unpaid wages, 4.5 weeks of annual leave and around $12,000 in superannuation.

Despite both the ATO and the Fair Work Ombudsman trying to recoup his money and issuing letters of demand to the company, more than a year later, he’s still not seen a single cent.

Mr Wakeman, 52, worked as the chief technology officer at Sydney tech company D365 Group — which builds software for health, real estate and accounting services with offices in Sydney and Melbourne — for just shy of two years.

In his final months at the firm he realised his superannuation wasn’t being paid and he finally resigned in November 2021 after his request for a holiday was rejected.

Last year news.com.au reported that at least seven ex-employees of D365 Group claim they are owed money ranging from $7000 to $45,000, having made reports to Fair Work and the Tax Office.

“It’s really frustrating. I haven’t had to do this before,” Mr Wakeman said, who is owed the largest amount of money that news.com.au knows of.

The dad-of-two is hopeful that changes announced during Tuesday night’s federal budget will finally get him the money he claims he is owed.

The Albanese government unveiled a raft of new measures as part of the 2023 federal budget including an additional $40 million of funding into the ATO to crack down on companies failing to pay superannuation to staff.

D365 Group is under investigation by Fair Work and the ATO.

From July 1 2026, employers must pay their employees’ super on the same day that they pay salary.

At the moment there is a quarterly deadline, which is how companies have ended up owing thousands to workers in superannuation debt.

But until those changes come through, the ATO is using the dedicated $40 million to hunt down businesses already avoiding super contributions.

They are putting $27 million towards improving their data capabilities to identify and act on cases of superannuation guarantee underpayment, and $13.2 million towards designing said new compliance system.

When news.com.au flagged the case of the workers to D365 Group to the treasury department, they said they couldn’t comment on specific cases. A spokesperson said the budget changes “will help … to proactively detect unpaid super payments earlier”.

“The Government will also implement enhanced unpaid superannuation recovery targets for the ATO,” they added.

With the crackdown announced, Mr Wakeman is optimistic — even though the saga has been going on for 18 months so far since he lodged his complaints to the relevant government agencies.

News.com.au called, texted, left voicemails, emailed and also left a note on the contact form of D365 Group’s website for comment. At time of publication, there was no response.

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The email staff received last year from a disgruntled senior employee.

In July last year, a senior executive sent an email to around 30 staff at D365 Group.

In the email, leaked to news.com.au, the employee encouraged his colleagues to use up all their holiday leave and check they were receiving superannuation and that tax had been correctly paid.

The email read: “Please check to make sure that you are: Getting paid super, End of year tax has been paid and you can do your tax returns. Use all of your holidays ASAP …

“Get out while you can.”

It caused quite the stir. Mr Wakeman says there has been a “nearly 100 per cent turnover” at his old firm, as he does not know anyone still working there while he was an employee.

“I don’t know anybody still working” there, he added.

Mr Wakeman said he feels “ripped off” from the whole situation.

He also alleges he struggled to submit his tax return because the end of year tax had not been paid.

James Turnbull is also owed money.

Mr Turnbull took over Mr Wakeman’s job.

Then there’s James Turnbull, in his 50s, who worked at D365 Group for 18 months and was eventually promoted to Chief Technology Officer when Mr Wakeman left before he too quit.

The ex-CTO claims he is owed around $20,000 from months of unpaid super, one week of wages and 240 hours of accrued leave.

About $7000 of that is from unpaid superannuation.

“I’m horrified,” Mr Turnbull told news.com.au.

“It could have been stopped (sooner) … It seems like these institutions are tolerating too much. That encourages and enables them (businesses) to keep doing it.”

Like Mr Wakeman, he believes things might have turned a corner with the government’s new budget announcement.

“I’m really encouraged that the (the government) will take it (unpaid super) seriously. (It) didn’t seem like they were taking it seriously prior to that.”

Mr Turnbull previously claimed to news.com.au that it was “well-known” among staff that if they resigned, they might be “stiffed” by not receiving their final wages, leave entitlements or superannuation.

“Whenever somebody left, they would get stiffed, they wouldn’t get their final several weeks’ pay,” he told news.com.au of his observations of several staff members.

“The trick which was well known in the organisation was to leave right after a payday to minimise the amount you could get stiffed, which is ridiculous. I left right after a payday.”

Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the government would be cracking down on superannuation dodgers. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Dylan Robinson

The ATO would not comment on the D365 Group complaints they had received due to privacy reasons while Fair Work would only confirm an investigation was underway.

However, emails shared with news.com.au from the employees shows that the ATO is trying to collect the debts from the company.

An update sent to complainants this week said the ATO was at the debt collection stage of the recovery process.

It comes as D365 Group was previously the subject of a news.com.au investigation after a senior staff member sent a sensational company-wide email encouraging workers to “get out while they can” to avoid underpayments.

Not the first time

Correspondence sent to ex employees and shared with news.com.au shows that Fair Work “gathered information from a range of places” and concluded that D365 Group may have contravened two laws: clause 4.3 of the National Minimum Wage Order by not paying staff for time worked and s90(2) of the Fair Work Act by failing to pay staff for untaken annual leave on termination.

“Our investigation into your super query has found D365. GROUP PTY LTD owes you outstanding superannuation guarantee amounts,” they wrote in letters sent to all seven staff news.com.au spoke to.

By law, employers must pay superannuation for all adult employees if they earn more than $450 per month. Failure to pay superannuation can mean a fine of up to $10,500 or 12 months’ imprisonment, according to Industry Super.

It’s not the first time D365 Group has been accused of underpaying its staff.

An employee took D365 Group to the Federal Circuit Court in July 2021 over unpaid wages.

The matter was eventually dismissed as the worker reached an agreement with D365 Group through mediation sessions.

In 2019, the tech company was taken to court twice and lost both times.

In that year, the Federal Circuit Court ordered the company to pay a former employee $9,604.11 in unpaid wages and entitlements.

Another staffer was awarded $8,795.31 by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

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Originally published as Sydney dad says he is furious over 18-month delay at former workplace D365 Group