Response on Independence Australia Group’s wage underpayments 

Independence Australia Group has conducted its own review of compliance with industrial agreements and has identified some historical errors in the calculation of overtime payments.

The Fair Work Ombudsman recently announced it was conducting an inquiry into non-compliance with industrial agreements such as the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (SCHADS) due to its complexity, particularly in relation to allowances such as overtime.

Independence Australia Group has also conducted its own review of compliance with industrial agreements and has identified some historical errors in the calculation of overtime payments between 4 January 2016 and 11 August 2024.  Following this discovery, we engaged a team of leading employment lawyers and public forensic accounting experts to conduct a comprehensive review of our payroll systems and enterprise agreements.

Independence Australia’s leadership and the Board would like to sincerely apologise to past and current employees affected by this issue. Wage underpayments are unacceptable in any organisation and we are sorry it has happened here. Rest assured we take this issue very seriously. We are dedicated to ensuring all our past and current employees are paid correctly.

The investigation into the payroll system was prompted by an internal audit and has now been completed. Most affected employees are owed between $1 and $1000 over the eight-and-a-half-year period.

We have self-reported the issue to the Fair Work Ombudsman and are fully cooperating with them. We are now working with the Ombudsman to ensure we have all of the information needed to repay all amounts we owe our valued employees with interest. The Independence Australia Group Board are closely monitoring this work to ensure all of our past and current employees are paid their correct amounts.

Based on the external expert assessments, it is clear that the problems arose from a misinterpretation of previous enterprise agreement terms and how they applied. The business has prepared for the back payment of the full amount and remains financially stable.