Westpac has recently reimbursed over $50 million to its employees following years of wage underpayments, as reported by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

This significant period of underpayment, spanning over 11 years, was largely attributed to deficiencies in Westpac’s systems, governance procedures, and compliance oversight, according to the ombudsman’s findings.

The investigation revealed further issues, such as poor record-keeping, dependence on systems requiring manual interventions, and errors in data input.

As a result, employees were shortchanged on a range of entitlements, including casual loadings, minimum wages for standard hours, allowances for higher duties and weekend work, termination payouts, and leave payments.

To address these discrepancies, Westpac has so far compensated nearly 47,000 current and former employees a combined total of more than $50.26 million, in addition to almost $9 million in interest and relevant superannuation. This corrective action covers underpayments that occurred from January 2014 to February 2025.

Back-payments to individuals ranged from less than $5 to $56,085 in one instance. The average back payment was about $1000.

Also, $90,490 has been paid into the federal unclaimed monies account for former employees who could not be found.

Anybody can check if unpaid wages are being held for them.

Westpac has also signed an enforceable undertaking, which will see the corporation pay $800,000 in a “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 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,” Booth said.

“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.”

The EU will also see the bank commission an independent audit to check compliance with workplace laws.

The ombudsman began to investigate the wages and entitlements of staff in December 2020 after Westpac self-reported its underpayments.

“Westpac uncovered these issues as part of our own review in 2020 and when we found them, we immediately moved to put things right,” a Westpac spokesperson said.

“We’re genuinely sorry this happened. Paying our people correctly is a fundamental obligation which we take seriously and we apologise again to all affected employees.

“As part of our comprehensive remediation program, we repaid those affected including employees who have since left the company. We did not ask anyone who has been overpaid to repay any money.

“We’ve also updated our systems and processes, investing significantly to better manage entitlements.”