In December 2019, NAB announced the start of our Payroll Review. Since then we have regularly updated colleagues at various stages on some of the detail of our remediation program. In the last 17 months we have investigated 148 matters, of which we have closed 61. Twenty-two of these issues has resulted in an underpayment. To date, NAB has paid c. $55 million to former and current colleagues.
The Review is for our Australia-based colleagues and Australian colleagues working overseas and we are being advised by King & Wood Mallesons, supported by PwC.
Recent media reporting has mentioned the FSU instigating legal action against NAB claiming that all full time colleagues, current and former are eligible for a remediation payment due to 40 hour work schedule in SAP.
The issue raised by the FSU does not impact full time colleagues.
The issue of hours worked only impacts some current and former colleagues in group 3 and above that worked part time for all or part of the remediation period where their annualised salary was calculated using a part time rate based on either:
- their part time employment contract specifying the number of hours they are required to work each week; and
- their part time TEC was calculated by fractioning those specified hours over 40 hours per week instead of 38 hours.
NAB determines the salary of our full time colleagues based on modelling against the Banking, Finance and Insurance Award (where relevant) and market analysis for equivalent full time roles. Any periods during which a colleague has worked in a full time capacity are unaffected by this issue as hours of work are not used to formulate their salary.
NAB has identified 3,200 current and former colleagues impacted by the part time issue. We have paid all current colleagues and are now in the process of contacting former colleagues.
The issues identified in the Payroll Review are not acceptable and we apologise to all current and former colleagues impacted. We are moving as quickly as possible to fix these issues and we want to make sure we get this right.