Southern Cross Care Tasmania: Aged care provider apologises for massive staff underpayment

The head of Tasmania’s biggest aged care provider has issued an apology to current and former staff after more than 1500 people were not paid the correct entitlements, with the organisation having now begun reimbursing staff an eye-watering sum of money.

Southern Cross Care Tasmania has begun back-paying staff $6.9m.

Aged care provider Southern Cross Care Tasmania (SCC) has apologised to its staff for underpaying them almost $6.9 million, saying it has moved to rectify the issue and has back-paid all affected employees still working for the organisation.

SCC is the largest residential aged care provider in the state, operating nine facilities across Tasmania.

The not-for-profit self-reported the huge underpayment to the Fair Work Ombudsman in August 2021 when it uncovered issues with its payroll and human resources systems.

A total of 1708 current and former employees were underpaid. Six workers are understood to have been underpaid more than $100,000, with individual back-payments ranging from more than $220,000 to less than $1.

SCC acting chair, Judith Fishlock, said the organisation had failed to apply the correct overtime provisions and other entitlements from 2015 onwards and that an independent review of the situation was subsequently ordered.

Rivulet Aged Care Home (Southern Cross Care) in Hobart. Picture: supplied

“On behalf of Southern Cross Care, I would like to apologise to staff, both current and former, for this underpayment,” she said.

“Since finalising the review, we have back-paid all current employees, and as many former employees we were able to contact, their full entitlements, including superannuation and interest.”

SCC has signed an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman, which is a written agreement outlining obligations for an employer who has breached the nation’s workplace laws.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said on Friday that SCC had “committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure all of its workers are paid correctly”.

“These measures include commissioning, at its own cost, three annual independent audits to check its compliance with workplace laws,” she said.

Tassie aged care provider back-paying staff after multimillion-dollar blunder

The state’s largest aged care provider has begun reimbursing staff almost $6.9m after discovering a massive underpayment in an internal review, Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman says.

Southern Cross Care Tasmania (SCC), a not-for-profit organisation that runs nine residential facilities across Tasmania, self-reported the matter to the ombudsman in August 2021 when it uncovered issues with its payroll and human resources systems.

SCC has signed an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman, which is a written agreement outlining obligations for an employer who has breached the nation’s workplace laws.

The 1708 underpaid current and former employees are being back-paid a total of $6.87m, with $5.8m of that sum being wages and entitlements, $313,591 in superannuation, and $754,181 in interest.

Southern Cross Care Tasmania has begun back-paying staff $6.9m. Picture: Istock.

Individual payments range from more than $220,000 to less than $1, with an average back-payment of just over $4000. Six workers are understood to have been underpaid more than $100,000.

The affected staff were largely employed on a part-time basis and worked across locations including Hobart, Launceston, Somerset and Low Head. The underpayments occurred between 2015 and 2022.

Among the underpaid employees were aged care workers, nurses, community care workers, cleaners, and laundry and maintenance staff.

SCC identified in its review that there had been a failure to implement agreements with part-time staff to work additional hours at ordinary rates of pay, meaning workers were not paid overtime they were entitled to for working additional hours.

The organisation also did not recognise that shift workers without written agreements were entitled to be paid from the start of their first shift to the end of their last shift each day, rather than merely the hours worked during their separate shifts.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said SCC had shown a strong commitment to addressing its underpayment breaches and had already back-paid the vast majority of affected staff.

The Enforceable Undertaking stipulates that all impacted workers must be back-paid by the end of September.

Rivulet Aged Care Home (Southern Cross Care) in Hobart. Picture: supplied

“Under the Enforceable Undertaking, [SCC] has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure all of its workers are paid correctly,” she said.

“These measures include commissioning, at its own cost, three annual independent audits to check its compliance with workplace laws.

“This matter demonstrates how important it is for employers to place a high priority on their workplace obligations. Fundamental errors – including failing to ensure that written agreements with part-time employees were in place – were left unchecked, which led to long-term breaches and a substantial back-payment bill.”

SCC has faced sustained public pressure recently, with independent Clark MP Andrew Wilkie raising “widespread” concerns from residents and their families in the federal parliament.

The organisation’s CEO, Robyn Boyd, and chairman, Stephen Shirley, both resigned last month.

Originally published as Southern Cross Care Tasmania: Aged care provider apologises for massive staff underpayment