Commbank accused of SG breach

The Commonwealth Bank has been accused of not meeting its obligations in paying the superannuation guarantee (SG) to part-time employees who work above initially agreed hours.

The allegation has been made by the Finance Sector Union (FSU) in a submission to the Senate Economics Committee inquiry into superannuation guarantee non-payment with the union alleging that the big banking group employs approximately 7,000 part-time employees, around 89 per cent of whom are women.

The FSU submission is claiming that the SG is payable on all ordinary hours of work but not overtime and that Commonwealth Bank part-time employees can, and do, work up to 38 hours per week as ordinary hours and the bank pays for all those hours at single time rates but only pays the SG on the initially agreed hours.

The union said it had raised concerns about this practice many times since 2009 but the response from the Commonwealth Bank had up until now been that payment of the hours did not constitute ordinary time earnings as envisaged by the SG legislation.

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It said that most recently the FSU had raised the problem on 9 January and after a series of discussions and further correspondence over the ensuing six weeks the bank had not yet acknowledged the principle that the hours of work in question are covered by the SG.

“FSU accepts that the process of identifying and rectifying every instance of underpayment of SG over the past seven years will require a meticulous process and it will be time-consuming, but this process should not be used as a stalling tactic to delay a simple acknowledgement that the hours in question are subject to the SG,” the submission said.

Asked to respond to the FSU submission, the Commonwealth Bank issued a statement in which it said it had "advised the FSU we are investigating their concerns and have made it clear to them that if we identify any issues we will rectify them".

“We understand the importance of superannuation to help secure and enhance the financial wellbeing of our employees, and we are committed to ensuring we comply with obligations to employees.”

The union said it was determined to recover the unpaid superannuation with interest as a matter of equity and justice.