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NAB admits to underpaying 66,000 workers more than $136 million
Back-payments per worker run from under $5 to over $87,000 with super and interest included, averaging about $1,934.
- NAB said it underpaid 65,999 current and former staff more than $136.3 million since October 2012.
- The Fair Work Ombudsman said the bank will also pay interest, superannuation and a record $2 million contrition payment.
- The Finance Sector Union called the underpayments “theft, pure and simple.”
The National Australia Bank (NAB) has admitted to underpaying 65,999 workers for more than a decade and will make a record $2 million contrition payment under a deal with the workplace watchdog.
The bank admitted to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) that it breached the Fair Work Act and its 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2024 enterprise agreements, underpaying current and former staff more than $136.3 million since October 2012.
The bank underpaid casual, part-time and full-time staff in every state and territory, from customer support advisors to branch managers, as it prepares to cut up to 2,500 jobs over the next year.
The shortfalls covered pay, superannuation, leave, allowances and overtime, as well as redundancy, termination and public holiday entitlements, the bank said.
“We sincerely apologise for these unintended errors,” NAB Group Executive People & Culture Sarah White said, noting the bank “will continue to remediate anyone who has been impacted.”
Record contrition payment
The FWO put the underpaid wages at $127 million, which NAB is repaying along with $34 million in interest and $8 million in superannuation.
No FWO enforceable undertaking has ever included a bigger contrition payment than NAB’s $2 million, which goes to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Back-payments per worker run from under $5 to over $87,000 with super and interest included, averaging about $1,934.
NAB has so far paid at least $155 million, including more than $120 million in wages and entitlements, more than $25 million in interest and more than $8 million in superannuation.
The bank first flagged the underpayments to the regulator in late 2019, yet its 2024 enterprise agreement rollout revealed the problems had not been properly fixed and staff were still being underpaid.
The regulator traced the failures to weak governance and compliance oversight, poor records, outdated payroll systems and too little investment in payroll expertise.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said it was “particularly disappointing to see these types of large and long-running underpayment issues in such a well-resourced employer.”
Under the undertaking, NAB must set up a steering committee to plan any future enterprise agreement, a first for an FWO undertaking, and hire an independent auditor to assess its new payroll platform.
It must also track employee complaints for signs of non-compliance and regularly brief its board on compliance.
Entitlements owed to workers NAB cannot locate will be paid into the Commonwealth’s unclaimed monies account.
NAB said its payroll review and remediation work is continuing and it is investing in a new human resources information system and payroll platform, while a third-party auditor will run at least two compliance audits.
Union demands executive accountability
The Finance Sector Union (FSU) said it first raised concerns about staff underpayments with NAB a decade ago, alleging the bank rejected them.
“Underpayment of wages is theft, pure and simple, and is unacceptable at any employer,” FSU National President Wendy Streets said in a statement.
“This latest insult is the last thing workers needed after learning that 2500 of them are no longer needed at the bank,” she said.
Streets said “the bank knew there was an issue and didn’t act” and its executives “must be held accountable,” while the union has asked federal health and safety regulator Comcare to investigate how NAB is managing staff safety and wellbeing during the redundancy process.