Sunwater Signs Enforceable Undertaking

Sunwater, Queensland Water Service provider is having to back pay employees more than $2million and has entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Sunwater did self-report last year that it had identified underpayments during an annual remuneration review for employees on individual contracts.

The underpayments have been the result of failure to ensure employees on individual contracts received all entitlements payable under the enterprise agreements cover its workforce, having incorrectly assumed these employees were excluded from coverage.  It resulted in underpaid base salaries, annual leave loading, on-call and relocation allowance, superannuation and accrued time off in lieu.  Record-keeping laws were also breached.

Fair Work Ombudsman, Sandra Parker said, “This matter serves as a warning to all organisations that they must prioritise workplace compliance.”

This mistake may have been caused by not applying Enterprise Agreement entitlements to those on individual contracts, however, the same can and does happen to those covered by Awards,  Individual contracts don’t mean the Award no longer applies and it is important to check regularly that they remain to be paid correctly and in fact this is a requirement under some Awards.

Contact us here if we can help with your awards, contracts and entitlements.