National Library working on rectifying underpayments

4 January 2007: Canberra, Australia – National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia. It is the largest reference library in Australia and contains over 10 million items.

After discovering that it underpaid its casual employees, the National Library of Australia is making efforts to correct the matter in conjunction with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The Federal entity based in Canberra self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman earlier this year that it failed to pay casual employees the correct weekend and public holiday penalty rates they were entitled to under the applicable Enterprise Agreements. This came after the National Library identified that it had misunderstood its obligations under the agreements regarding payment of penalty rates to its casual employees over two decades.

As a result, the National Library found that it underpaid 106 current and former employees a total of $245,359 in wages and superannuation between 2000 and April 2020. Individual underpayments range from $12 to $19,997, with 11 employees underpaid $5000 or more. The employees concerned were library assistants whose role included providing assistance to the public in the reading rooms during weekends and public holidays.

As part of the rectification effort, the National Library has corrected more than half of the underpayments. It also entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the FWO, ensuring that the National Libray will have paid back the owed amounts to every affected employee within the next three months, as well as pay additional interest on all back-payments.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said that an EU was an appropriate enforcement outcome as the National Library of Australia had cooperated with the investigation and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying all underpayments.

“Under the Enforceable Undertaking, this entity has committed to stringent measures to comply with the law and protect its workforce. This includes engaging, at its own cost, an expert auditing firm to audit its compliance with workplace laws,” Parker said. “This matter serves as a warning to all public and private sector employers that if you don’t prioritise workplace compliance, you risk underpaying staff on a large scale.”

The National Library is also required by the EU to display an online notice detailing its workplace law breaches, establish workplace relations changes for managerial staff, and provide evidence to the Fair Work Ombudsman that it has developed systems and processes for ensuring compliance in future.