Commbank accedes to union and backpays SG
The Commonwealth Bank has acceded to claims from the Finance Sector Union (FSU) and will now pay superannuation on additional single time hours worked by part-time employees.
The decision will see the bank making up to eight years of back-payments to existing and past employees.
The bank revealed its change of position in a submission to the Senate Economics Committee review of the non-payment of the superannuation guarantee (SG) after an earlier FSU submission had pointed to the problems which existed at the bank.
However in acceding to the union’s claims, the Commonwealth Bank pointed to an ATO ruling on SG payments issued in 2009 and advice it had obtained that under the ruling superannuation was not payable on additional hours of overtime worked by part-time workers.
“We have reviewed our position following a number of case studies brought to our attention by the FSU earlier this year, and will now be paying superannuation on additional single time hours worked by our part-time employees,” the bank said.
It said it had commenced an internal review of additional work hours and pay records of all current and former part-time employees for the past eight years to identify instances of unpaid superannuation.
“Where we identify unpaid superannuation we will pay the interest, as well as making other adjustments such as leave entitlements, as soon as possible,” the bank said.
It said it expected to complete this process by June.
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