Southern Cross Care (WA) Inc will rectify about $5.4 million in underpayments, including interest and superannuation, to nearly 2,000 staff as part of an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The not-for-profit aged care, mental health and disability support services provider has already rectified the large majority of the underpayments, to all employees it can find.
It provides services such as community care, supported accommodation, residential housing and aged care facilities across 13 aged care and mental health care facilities in metropolitan Perth, Broome and Kalgoorlie. Most of the underpaid workers were based in Perth.
Affected workers included home care employees, aged care workers, registered and enrolled nurses, mental health employees, and hospitality workers.
The underpaid workers included 31 young people aged under 21 and nearly 400 visa holders. Some of the visa holders were also young.
Southern Cross Care (WA) reported the root causes of the non-compliance arose from its time and attendance system and payroll system being incorrectly configured, and from the misinterpretation of enterprise agreement provisions.
Employees were underpaid their base rates as owed under modern awards underpinning applicable enterprise agreements.
They also missed out on the right pay point progression; payment for work during sleepovers; paid meal breaks; overtime; breaks between shifts; various allowances; additional leave for continuous shift workers; annual leave loading and afternoon shift loading. They also weren't appropriately compensated for broken shifts and client cancellations. Casual employees' minimum engagement requirements were not met.
The organisation identified the underpayments following an internal review after investigating employee and union queries about pay and conditions. It self-reported its non-compliance to the Fair Work Ombudsman in December 2024.
The underpayments identified occurred between January 2017 and November 2025. The organisation has so far back-paid 1,956 employees $5,382,122, including interest and superannuation.
The small amount of outstanding wages owed will be paid into the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund if the employer can't find the remainder of the employees within 60 days.
Back-payments to underpaid individual employees range from less than a dollar to $95,426, including superannuation and interest. The median back-payment was $546.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said an EU was appropriate as the not-for-profit employer had cooperated with the FWO's investigation and showed commitment to rectifying underpayments found and preventing them in the future.
"Under the Enforceable Undertaking, Southern Cross Care (WA) has committed to commissioning two independent audits, at its own cost, to check its compliance with workplace laws," Ms Booth said.
"We welcome Southern Cross Care (WA)'s acknowledgement of its breaches and the underlying issues, and the measures taken to rectify them and ensure future compliance for their workers. These include increased worker voice options going forward."
Ms Booth said the matter showed employers must check their systems are meeting obligations to pay employees all their correct pay and entitlements.
"The matter serves as a warning of the significant long-running problems that can result from an employer failing to have appropriate checks and balances to ensure workplace compliance. We expect employers to meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements," she said.
The terms of the EU require Southern Cross Care (WA) to give FWO quarterly updates on the implementation of its new human resource management information system. The organisation must also provide training to relevant employees on workplace relations, including enterprise agreement entitlements. It must regularly report to its Board about compliance and flag any potential breaches.
The EU commits Southern Cross Care (WA) to establishing several ways for employees to raise their views, including a quarterly Worker Voice Forum to which union representatives will be invited. Feedback from employees will be sought through surveys, and a hotline will run for six months for all current and former employees who can raise issues confidentially if they wish.
