Seqwater to back pay workers more than $7 million in unpaid entitlements
Seqwater is back-paying staff more than $7 million following a review that uncovered the company had underpaid hundreds of workers.
South East Queensland’s water supplier has signed into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman regarding the money owed to current and former staff, including Professionals Australia members.
Many employees were underpaid because Seqwater incorrectly determined that it was not required to provide them with entitlements listed in its enterprise agreements as they were on individual contracts, an issue raised by union members.
The majority of the underpayments relate to overtime entitlements, but there were also travel, on-call, remote assistance, leave loading and ordinary hourly rate allowances incorrectly paid or not paid at all.
Payroll system errors and process issues also caused a number of underpayments.
Currently, the largest single payment owed totals over $380,000, however, further underpayments are still being quantified.
Seqwater is required to back-pay all underpaid employees by February 2023.