In an ongoing audit of employee entitlements, it has been discovered that Optus has short-changed members by thousands in unpaid superannuation entitlements.
Discovering an anomaly in their payments systems late last year, National Assistant Secretary James Perkins and National Legal Officer Dahlia Khatab met with senior Optus management who advised that several small discrepancies affecting a small group of workers had been identified and would be rectified. Optus advised that approximately 3600 past and present employees were affected and that the average underpayment of superannuation was in the realm of $300.
Whilst Optus attempted to play down the size of the issue the Union demanded a broader investigation to occur into just how far and wide the matter affected our members. If superannuation discrepancies had been found, what else was lurking beneath the surface?
Since then, the Union has continued to meet with Optus, who now admits the problem is much larger than first anticipated with an audit undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers unearthing a number of payment discrepancies affecting former and current employees in unpaid superannuation.
The amounts owed, including interest, will be repaid in full via the ATO and a decision has been made to round up to $10 for any instances where the shortfall is less than this.
To assist employees in understanding the underpayments, Optus will be directly contacting those affected current and former employees to advise them of the superannuation underpayment and will establish a dedicated contact centre to assist employees further.
The Union has demanded that the review continue and expand outside of superannuation to encompass all payments, to which Optus has agreed and committed to rectify, should further underpayments be found. We will keep you updated on these findings as they come to light.
If you believe you have been underpaid at Optus, please contact the Branch Office on (02) 9893 7822 for assistance in recovering those entitlements. Any underpayment, regardless of the value, is unacceptable, unlawful and will be challenged by your Union.
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