Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) has back-paid nearly 47,000 staff more than $50 million and signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Westpac, one of Australia's largest banks, operates under multiple brands including Westpac, St.George and Bank of Melbourne.
Underpayments, which occurred over an 11-year period, were primarily caused by failures in Westpac's systems, governance processes, and compliance oversight. Further shortcomings included inadequate record-keeping, reliance on systems requiring manual adjustments, and input errors.
In breach of multiple Westpac Group enterprise agreements, employees were underpaid their casual loading and minimum wages for ordinary hours; allowances such as for higher duties and weekend penalties; termination payments, leave payments and more.
The most common entitlements underpaid were the incorrect deduction of leave and time off in lieu of public holidays; additional hours for part-time employees; superannuation (under the enterprise agreements); underpayments related to incorrect grade and classification levels; and meal allowances.
Fixing the deduction of leave and time off in lieu breaches meant 10,585 current employees had their leave balance adjusted, while former employees received a payment.
To date, Westpac has back-paid a total of more than $50.26 million, plus almost $9 million in interest and applicable superannuation, to nearly 47,000 current and former staff who were underpaid between January 2014 and February 2025.
Back-payments to individuals ranged from less than $5 to $56,085 in one instance. The average back payment was about $1,000.
The underpaid employees were engaged by Westpac and other Westpac entities that no longer engage employees: Asgard Wealth Solutions Ltd, Westpac Financial Consultants Pty Limited, Westpac General Insurance Services Limited, BT Financial Group Pty Limited and Qvalent Pty Ltd. They worked across Australia in casual, part-time and full-time roles.
The payments made to date include $90,490 owed to 372 former employees Westpac could not find, which it has paid to the Commonwealth of Australia unclaimed monies account. Anyone can check if unpaid wages are being held for them. The EU requires a further payment to the unclaimed monies account if there remain any affected employees who are owed money that cannot be located.
On top of this, Westpac must make an $800,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said an EU was an appropriate outcome as Westpac had fully cooperated with the FWO's investigation and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying its non-compliance issues and ensuring future compliance.
"Westpac has made full back-payments for all underpayments owed to employees it could locate. This includes back-payments extending well beyond the six-year liability limitation period. Under the Enforceable Undertaking, it has committed to rectifying any future underpayments it identifies in full, plus interest and superannuation, and implementing stringent measures to ensure all staff are paid correctly in future," Ms Booth said.
"This includes commissioning an independent audit to check compliance with workplace laws, and reporting back to the FWO about its findings."
Ms Booth said the matter served as an important reminder to employers, in particular large corporates, to place a high priority on ensuring all employees' lawful entitlements are met.
"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 better from large corporates such as Westpac. They must meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements and underlying awards.
"Improving compliance among large corporates is a Fair Work Ombudsman priority, and we've helped recover more than $1.1 billion for workers from large corporates in the last five financial years."
The EU also requires Westpac to:
- ensure its board is appropriately informed of compliance matters;
- establish a dedicated channel for employees to raise concerns about their entitlements;
- consult regularly with employees and the Finance Sector Union;
- give mandatory training on monetary worker entitlements to relevant staff;
- tell its staff about the EU through its website, intranet, and social media;
- pay further unclaimed monies to the Commonwealth.
"We cannot overstate the importance of sound governance and proper board oversight of employee wage and entitlement compliance," Ms Booth said.
"I commend Westpac for the commitments it has made to strengthening its processes on worker voice and executive governance. Ensuring that workers have real mechanisms and ongoing supports to raise concerns and ask questions means small issues can be addressed before growing into widespread problems.
"Other large corporate employers should take note of the positive changes that Westpac has made as part of this EU. A proper investment in meeting employer obligations will see workers receive their legal entitlements, at the same time as reducing the risks and costs for the business associated with non-compliance."
The FWO began to investigate the wages and entitlements of staff in December 2020 after Westpac self-reported its underpayments.
