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Approximately 28,500 current and former employees have been affected by the payment error.
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BHP admits to $430 million underpayment
01 June 2023
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Mining giant BHP has admitted to an approximately $430 million underpayment of its employees due to incorrect payroll processes surrounding public holidays.
In a statement to the ASX, the company revealed it had payment processes across its Australian operations that incorrectly deducted leave from employers on public holidays.
The firm said approximately 28,500 current and former employees were affected with an average of six leave days that were incorrectly deducted from affected employees over 13 years from 2010.
President of BHP Australia, Geraldine Slattery apologised for the mistake that impacted thousands of employees.
“We are sorry to all current and former employees impacted by these errors,” said Ms Slattery.
This is not good enough and falls short of the standards we expect at BHP.”
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“We are working to rectify and remediate these issues, with interest, as quickly as possible.”
The firm estimated the cost of remediating the issue would be up to US$280 million (approximately AU$430 million) which incorporated costs including superannuation and interest payments.
BHP also revealed initial investigations suggested that OZ Minerals, which the firm recently acquired, was also affected by a similar leave deduction issue.
The company said it would contact affected current and former employees regarding remediation as soon as possible and had self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
A Fair Work Ombudsman spokesperson said the organisation would investigate the company's underpayment.
“The Fair Work Ombudsman will conduct an investigation into BHP following its self-reported underpayments to staff in Australia,” they said.
“As regulator we will hold the organisation to account for any breaches of workplace laws.”
Mining and Energy Union general secretary Grahame Kelly said the association would continue to pressure large companies such as BHP to ensure workers received their full entitlements.
“BHP has been sprung ripping workers off by hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Mr Kelly. “Today’s revelation goes to show that we need to keep up the pressure on big companies like BHP to do the right thing.”
“BHP has assumed that because they want round-the-clock profits from their mining operations, their workers aren’t entitled to their public holiday rights.”
“It’s yet another example of dodgy maths and dodgy employment practices from BHP. We will make sure all our affected members receive every cent they are owed due to this stuff-up.”
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