10 June 2021
Published 11 December 2020
A historical anomaly in the underpayment of junior team members from 2014-2020 will be immediately rectified by Moreton Bay Regional Council.
Council will make back payments including superannuation to all affected current and former team members at a cost of $501,000.
Mayor Peter Flannery thanked the CEO for moving so swiftly to correct this error.
“I promised this new Council would do things differently, that we would be transparent with our ratepayers and staff, and that’s exactly why we are admitting this error and repaying those workers,” Mayor Flannery said.
“Our payroll team has already identified the scope of the underpayment and developed a rectification plan, which we can implement immediately.
“There were a total of 101 people affected by the underpayment, of those 47 are still employed by council.
“We have contacted 100 current and former team members to arrange payment, the majority of the back payments will be processed prior to the end of this calendar year.
“We are still attempting to make contact with one former team member and will pursue additional avenues to try and reach them.
“The majority of people impacted by this error have been members of our university student program and I want to apologise for that. I know all our Councillors want MBRC to be the regional employer of choice.
“As soon as we learned that an incorrect application to the junior rate had been applied under previous and current Enterprise Bargaining Agreements, we sought immediate advice on how to rectify this.
“We have checked if this impacts the wages Council pays to its trainees or apprentices and confirmed that it does not, trainees and apprentices are covered by a separate industrial instrument.
“As your newly elected Mayor I pride myself on the modernisation we’ve achieved in the first year of this Council and I want to thank the Councillors for their support in rectifying this underpayment.
“I sincerely apologise to everyone who has been let down. One of our core values at Council is Integrity, and I want to thank the team members involved in identifying and rectifying this matter so quickly.”
Council will start to reimburse underpaid team members in the payroll run commencing 17 December 2020.