Woolworths chief Brad Banducci says the award system makes it difficult to strike the right balance between rewarding ambitious salaried staff who want to get ahead and paying staff correctly under the law.

Woolworths expects the damages bill from almost a decade of underpaying more than 5700 salaried staff to be closer to $200 million rather than $300 million, even though, as expected, it has uncovered underpayments in divisions other than supermarkets.