WA electricity supplier Western Power will backpay $8.3 million in employee underpayments to managers, team leaders and workers in professional, para-professional, technical and administration roles.
They will also make an initial contrition payment of $400,000 under an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The WA Government enterprise will be required to make further significant backpayments under the undertaking.
Workers covered by Individual Flexibility Arrangements were underpaid due to the employer failing to ensure they were better off “compared with the enterprise agreements that covered the employees, and excluding entitlements in the enterprise agreements which were not permitted to be varied in the individual agreements”.
“This resulted in Western Power underpaying hundreds of staff pay-point-progression payments, allowances, penalties, overtime, redundancy pay and superannuation entitlements at various times between March 2010 and January 2020,” the Fair Work Ombudsman said.
The undertaking requires Western Power to make an initial $400,000 contrition payment and a second amount next year when it finalises the underpayment calculations.
