The Fair Work Ombudsman recovered a record amount in unpaid wages and entitlements for hundreds of thousands of workers in 2021-22.
Deputy Fair Work Ombudsman responsible for Policy and Communication, Kristen Hannah said the $532 million sum recovered was more than three times that of last year’s record and benefitted five times the number of workers across the nation.
“The Fair Work Ombudsman’s strengthened compliance and enforcement approach has seen another record amount of backpaid wages for Australian workers in the last financial year,” Ms Hannah said.
“This is a great result for the workers who have been reunited with their withheld wages, and also for the businesses that pay correctly and are no longer at a disadvantage as a result.”
She said more than half of the recoveries – almost $279 million – came from large corporate employers.
“This is the result of the sustained hard work that our agency has done to create an environment that encourages large corporates to prioritise compliance,” the Deputy Ombudsman said.
“The Fair Work Ombudsman currently has about 50 investigations underway into large corporates that have self-reported underpayments, including some of Australia’s largest companies,” she said.
Ms Hannah said that last financial year, the federal workplace regulator filed a record 137 litigations as part of efforts to hold to account employers who had allegedly breached workplace laws.
She said this was an almost doubling of the number of new matters put into court the year before.
“New litigations included those against the Commonwealth Bank and Commsec, and Coles Supermarkets, which are ongoing,” Ms Hannah said.
