Baptist Care SA will inform employees of money owed by the end of the year

Baptist Care SA has revealed when it intends to tell current and former staff whether they have been impacted by a pay system error after a two-year investigation.

Current and former employees of Baptist Care SA will soon find out whether they have been underpaid wages due to a payroll error dating back to 2016, more than two years after the issue was discovered.

A Baptist Care SA spokesperson said they planned to inform current and former employees of any money owed to them by the end of the year, based on the current status of the investigation.

“This will include wages owed, superannuation and a further interest payment,” they said.

The Baptist Care SA spokesperson said they were reviewing the underpayment calculations provided to them by the external consultant, which they received sometime in August, but would not reveal how much money was owed or how many people were impacted.

Baptist Care SA chief executive Sue Raw. Picture: Supplied by Baptist Care SA

“At this stage, it’s too early to provide a precise number of employees impacted or precise calculation for the total value of any underpayments,” they said.

The not-for-profit became aware of the issue in June 2022, engaging an external accounting firm to conduct a historical pay review – dating back to 2016 – and self-reported the issue to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

In its most recent update letter to potentially affected staff, dated August 26, Baptist Care SA acknowledged that the “project was taking longer than expected”, asking staff to remain patient.

The letter explains that while the external consultants completed the historical pay review, Baptist Care SA would now begin an internal review of the findings, before being sent to the Fair Work Ombudsman for another review.

“Before we can start remediating underpayments, there are several steps that need to take place to ensure this process is implemented accurately and efficiently”, the letter said.

“Given the scale of the review, the volume of data that needs to be compiled and analysed, and the complexity of the various pay rules involved, the above steps may take some time.”

The letter also states that once Baptist Care SA has verified its findings, it would then communicate with staff about whether they have been impacted – however, no specific timeline around when this was set to occur was mentioned.

The payroll issue was caused by inconsistencies and errors in the way in which pay rules were applied by the Baptist Care SA pay system, which were not in accordance with the Baptist Care (SA) Inc Enterprise Agreement 2013-2015 – which incorporates the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010.

Baptist Care SA are obliged under statutory requirement to review and where relevant repay employees entitlements six years from the date of self-reporting to the Ombudsman.

However, Baptist Care SA chose to go back seven years.

Any employees or former employees found to have been overpaid will not be asked to reimburse Baptist Care SA.

Originally published as Baptist Care SA will inform employees of money owed by the end of the year