Australia's central bank owes underpaid workers more than US$770,000

Australia’s central bank will pay out more than US770,000 in back pay after an internal review found on Wednesday (Jun 14) the bank had systematically underpaid more than a thousand current and former employees.

A review into the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) “more complex remuneration arrangements” identified 1,173 current and former staff owed roughly US$777,975, according to a statement on Wednesday.

Most of the money owed came from leave entitlements that should have been paid out when staff left the bank, the bank said. The RBA has contacted all the staff involved and begun making payments.

The bank should be setting an example for the broader sector on pay and was right to apologise, according to Julia Angrisano, national secretary of the Finance Sector Union.

“It should not be up to the Finance Sector Union to point out to the RBA that its internal procedures are leaving staff out of pocket,” she said in a statement.

The Reserve Bank’s admission comes weeks after fellow Australian institution and the world’s biggest listed miner BHP Group said it owed workers A$280 million (S$254.8 million) in leave and other entitlements from a 13-year period of underpayment.

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The review was done with the help of “big four” firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia, which is battling a national scandal over the misuse of confidential government tax documents.

Governor Philip Lowe said last month the bank would freeze all new work with the firm until there was an appropriate amount of transparency and accountability from the firm. REUTERS