Payback of wages begins at NAB

FSU members will see the first payments of $128 million dollars’ worth of remediation for unpaid wages on 25 November.

Members have campaigned throughout 2020 around concerns about not being paid correctly which resulted in NAB conducting an end to end audit of their entire payroll system for over 60,000 current and former employees.

The first tranche of payments will reimburse two key foundational issues:

  1. 26.1 divisor issue which is the calculation of your fortnightly pay system
  2. Underpayment of superannuation

58,000 current and former staff will receive a payment expected to total approximately $30million of the monies owed to employees. Every affected employee will receive a detailed letter on Friday 20 November outlining their monies owed (including interest), details on the identified issue and solution along with a financial year breakdown back to 2012.

The FSU has made it clear to NAB that detail and transparency in the remediation program is critical to ensuring confidence that payments are correct and that issues have been fixed. If you have concerns that your calculation isn’t correct, you should put your questions to NAB’s Payroll Governance Team on 1800 956 555. If your issues aren’t addressed to your satisfaction, you should get it touch with our FSU Members Rights Centre on 1300 366 378.

Group 3/4 deserve priority

Whilst this first payment is welcomed and deserved, the FSU have put forward that issues affecting members in Group 3 and 4 need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

It was members affected by the 38 vs 40 hr contract concerns that sparked the review (that has now seen $30mil returned to workers to date) and rightly deserve to be the highest priority for compensation.

NAB has advised that while they are fixing foundational issues in this round of remediation, Group 3 & 4 pay will be dealt with as a high order issue in the first quarter of 2021. As the FSU and NAB continue to meet in coming weeks, we will seek specific updates to the progress on this issue and report back to members.

Next Steps

With approximately $90million still in provisions to be repaid to workers, the FSU will continue to advocate and pursue NAB to ensure that these payments are made as quickly and transparently as possible. It is not acceptable that it takes a day longer than necessary to see owed monies returned to workers.

If you know a current or former colleague who has been affected and wants to be supported, ask them to join at www.fsunion.org.au/join

Authorised by Julia Angrisano, National Secretary