Westpac is the latest lender in the spotlight for questionable conduct.
The major bank has agreed to pay more than $50 million in back pay to nearly 47,000 staff and has signed an enforceable undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).
The payment gaps, which happened over an 11-year period, were caused by failures in Westpac's systems and governance processes, compliance oversight, record-keeping issues and input errors from systems that required manual adjustments, the government agency said. The underpayments occurred during January 2014 and February 2025.
So far, Westpac has paid out more than $50.26 million, plus nearly $9 million in interest and applicable superannuation to almost 47,000 employees, both current and former. Payments ranged from $5 to just over $56,000, with an average payout of $1,000.
Westpac was also ordered to pay an $800,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund. In addition, under the EU, the bank must ensure its board is appropriately informed on compliance issues, establish a channel for employees to raise concerns about pay or other benefits, check in regularly with both employees and Australia's Finance Sector Union, and conduct staff trainings on monetary work entitlements.
FWO first began its investigations on the Westpac underpayments in December 2020, after the major bank self-reported underpayments, the government agency said.
While Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said Westpac fully cooperated with the agency's investigation and made full back-payments, she added that: "We expect better from large corporates, such as Westpac. They must meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements and underlying awards. We cannot overstate the importance of sound governance and proper board oversight of employee wage and entitlement compliance.
"The matter serves as a warning of the significant long-running problems that can result from an employer failing to have appropriate checks and balances to ensure workplace compliance," Booth continued.
Westpac declined to specify which employees were affected by the underpayments or the departments in which they worked. The underpayments stemmed from a variety of causes, such as insufficient payment for regular hours worked, failure to apply higher-duties and weekend penalty rates, and errors in termination and leave payments.
A Westpac spokesperson told Australian Broker: "Westpac uncovered these issues as part of our own review in 2020 and when we found them, we immediately moved to put things right. We’re genuinely sorry this happened. Paying our people correctly is a fundamental obligation, which we take seriously and we apologise again to all affected employees.
"As part of our comprehensive remediation program, we repaid those affected including employees who have since left the company," the spokesperson continued. "We did not ask anyone who has been overpaid to repay any money. We’ve also updated our systems and processes, investing significantly to better manage entitlements."
Westpac’s fine is just the latest blow to a bank already under scrutiny.
In September, the major said it planned to cut some 200 jobs among its tellers and personal banking divisions, while adding approximately the same number of roles in home and small-business lending. That was on top of Westpac's May 2025 reveal that more than 1,500 jobs would be axed as part of chief executive officer Anthony Miller's restructuring efforts.
Westpac said the move was part of its routine workforce adjustments designed to reflect shifting investment priorities.
But the Finance Sector Union (FSU) criticized Westpac for the move.
"It’s callous and short-sighted," said FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano. "We've already heard of 1,500 job cuts leaked earlier this year. These cuts show Westpac is disguising a jobs cull as a digital transformation."
Still, Westpac isn't the only major bank under fire.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) agreed to pay $240 million in misconduct fees in September after admitting to a number of wrongdoings across its institutional and retail divisions.
At the time, ASIC chair Joe Longo said ANZ's fine was the largest penalty ASIC has ever brought against one entity.
