Criminal penalties for employers who deliberately underpay workers have come into effect, including up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $7.8m. Commonwealth Bank call centre worker Adrian Thoen was devastated when he found out he was among thousands of workers at the nation’s biggest bank being underpaid to the tune of $16m.
He was employed on a flexible contract instead of a standard enterprise agreement, with more than 7,000 workers losing out on money and entitlements. “When I was hired they put a contract in front of me to sign, they didn’t mention what type of contract it was,” Thoen told reporters on Wednesday.
“I was gutted to know that I was having to think about what we were actually going to pay on a fortnightly basis, whilst this big corporation that I worked for was just pocketing this money which should have been helping me.”. The bank and its subsidiary CommSec were fined a record $10.3m in the Federal Court in early 2024 after self-reporting Fair Work Act breaches, which the Ombudsman said were “committed knowingly and systematically”.
A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment. Commonwealth Bank and CommSec previously said any instance of employees not being paid their correct entitlements was unacceptable and their remediation program started in 2018. “In response to these issues, systems and processes have been strengthened and CBA and CommSec have not offered any new Individual Flexibility Arrangements for more than two years,” the bank said in 2021.
