Payroll remediation
Underpayments fixed at the source, then recalculated, paid and closed in a way you can defend to employees, auditors and the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Where it sits in the pay chain
- Contract
- Roster
- Timesheet
- Pay run
- Payslip
When you need it
- An audit or compliance review has found a gap.
- Employees, a union or the Fair Work Ombudsman have raised a concern.
- An agreement or award change was applied late or incorrectly.
- A system change has exposed rules that were configured wrongly years ago.
- A remediation is already underway but has stalled or drifted.
How a remediation runs
- ScopeConfirm the affected population, period, instruments and systems, and assess data quality before quoting a fee or a timeline.
- Fix forwardStop the underpayment first: correct the configuration, train the people who roster, approve and process pay, and put exception reporting in place.
- MethodDocument every interpretation call, assumption and business rule, and have it signed off before anything is calculated.
- Build and testRebuild each person’s entitlements inside your environment, and test against cases your team already knows the answer to.
- Pay and communicateCalculate interest and super, verify identities, trace former employees, run the payments and support the contact centre.
- Close outConfirm the fix is holding, deal with unclaimed amounts, and hand over the workings so your team can defend them later.
The rollout is often the part organisations underestimate. We handle payment execution, identity verification, former-employee tracing, contact centre scripts, tax and super treatment, interest and unclaimed amounts.
What you keep
- A signed-off methodology and business rules.
- The calculation engine and every working paper.
- Payment files, reconciliations and communication packs.
- A close-out report you can take to your board or the FWO.
Questions
Do we have to pay interest on back pay?
Not by law unless a court orders it, but the Fair Work Ombudsman expects it as good practice and considers it when deciding on enforcement.
Why fix forward before recalculating?
It stops the underpayment growing and fixes the end date of the remediation period, so the numbers don’t go stale while you calculate.
Do you work with our lawyers?
Yes. We often work alongside legal advisers, who provide the legal advice while we run the method, data and calculations.
How long does a remediation take?
It depends on the number of instruments, the lookback period, data quality and how many former employees are involved. We give you a realistic timeline after scoping.
If something isn’t adding up, it’s worth a conversation.
Tell us what you’re seeing: a suspicion, a known gap, or a project that’s drifting. We’ll be honest about whether it needs an engagement.