NEMA reports payroll underpayments to Fair Work after $1.8 million estimate

The National Emergency Management Agency reported fair work non-compliance to the Fair Work Ombudsman on April 24 after estimating nearly 600 staff were owed $1.8 million in underpayments. Interim coordinator-general Pat Hetherington told Senate estimates the figures were preliminary, and said overpaid wages would be recovered on an individual basis.

Pat Hetherington Senate estimates

Hetherington said the agency was still working through the payroll problems and had brought in KPMG to identify further underpayment issues. He also said the agency had spoken directly to staff about the matter and was still gathering answers for employees affected by the payroll errors.

"I do want to stress that this is preliminary data and I don't want that to cause concern amongst our workforce," Hetherington told the hearing on Wednesday. He added: "It is a bit of a hypothetical because I don't know the magnitude of the debts and who has them if they exist [...], but we will work through that in a very transparent way," and said: "We need to work through all of that very carefully, and as I said at the outset, this is very complex,".

Shift workers and surge staff

The payroll problems were linked to failures in recording shift work and time, along with missed overtime, meal allowances and casual loading. The agency said shift workers and surge staff were most affected, and that some staff may have been overpaid at least $1.5 million because of administrative errors.

That estimate was larger than the picture given to Senate estimates in October last year, when officials said only one staff member was thought to have been affected. By December, the estimate had risen to up to 120 shift workers, showing the scale of the payroll review had already expanded before the April 24 report to the watchdog.

KPMG and KordaMentha

NEMA said it engaged KPMG to identify any further underpayment issues and awarded KordaMentha a contract worth $330,000 to assist in the remediation process. Hetherington said resolving the payroll issues was one of his highest priorities, and said: "We have been working very, very hard to get all the answers for them and to make this right."

For affected staff, the practical issue now is whether they were among the nearly 600 workers identified in the agency's latest estimate and how any debt or repayment will be handled on an individual basis. Hetherington said: "We have been out and spoke directly to staff about the issues and what we were doing. We don't have all the answers for them yet; we've been very clear about that," leaving each case to be worked through as the remediation process continues.