Westpac has repaid almost 47,000 current and former employees more than $50 million in back pay and interest after discovering widespread underpayments dating back more than a decade.
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has confirmed that the major bank has signed an enforceable undertaking (EU) following a probe that uncovered wage shortfalls across its workforce between January 2014 and February 2025.
The underpayments, allegedly caused by failures in systems, governance and compliance oversights, breached multiple Westpac Group enterprise agreements.
According to the FWO, employees were underpaid entitlements including casual loadings, minimum wages, allowances for higher duties and weekend penalties, and termination and leave payments.
Common issues included incorrect leave deductions, unpaid additional hours for part-time employees, superannuation shortfalls, and misclassification errors.
Fixing these errors required adjustments to the leave balances of more than 10,500 current staff, while former employees received direct payments.
So far, Westpac has back-paid $50.26 million, plus almost $9 million in interest and superannuation. Individual repayments have ranged from under $5 to $56,085, averaging around $1,000.
The payments cover staff employed by Westpac and several former subsidiaries including Asgard Wealth Solutions, BT Financial Group, and Qvalent.
The major bank has also transferred $90,490 to the Commonwealth’s unclaimed monies account for 372 former employees it could not locate. Any future unclaimed payments must also be directed to that account under the EU, the FWO stated.
In addition, Westpac must make an $800,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the EU was an appropriate outcome given Westpac’s full cooperation and commitment to fixing its compliance issues.
“Westpac has made full back-payments for all underpayments owed to employees it could locate. This includes back-payments extending well beyond the six-year liability limitation period,” Booth said. “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.”
She added that the undertaking requires an independent audit of Westpac’s compliance with workplace laws, with findings reported back to the regulator.
Booth said the case was a warning for other large employers to maintain robust governance to avoid systemic breaches.
“The matter serves as a warning of the significant long-running problems that can result from an employer failing to have appropriate checks and balances to ensure workplace compliance. We expect better from large corporates such as Westpac,” she said.
“Improving compliance among large corporates is a Fair Work Ombudsman priority, and we’ve helped recover more than $1.1 billion for workers from large corporates in the last five financial years.”
Under the EU, Westpac must ensure its board remains informed on compliance matters, establish a dedicated channel for staff to raise entitlement concerns, consult regularly with employees and the Finance Sector Union, and provide mandatory training to relevant staff.
It must also inform staff about the EU via its website and social media channels.
“We cannot overstate the importance of sound governance and proper board oversight of employee wage and entitlement compliance,” Booth said. “I commend Westpac for the commitments it has made to strengthening its processes on worker voice and executive governance.
“Other large corporate employers should take note of the positive changes that Westpac has made as part of this EU.”
