Taronga, Western Plains Zoo casual staff underpaid $2.6 million in interest and superannuation

• Taronga, Western Plains Zoo underpaying staff
• New payroll system error, backpay begins in July

The company behind two of the Australia’s most iconic attractions has admitted former and current casual staff have been underpaid in a payroll mishap.

Workers from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo and Dubbo’s Taronga Western Plains Zoo have collectively been underpaid about $2.6 million, including six per cent interest and 11 per cent superannuation.

Reimbursements for affected staff are due to begin in July, following a ‘proactive review’ by the company of their new payroll system which was introduced in February 2021. 

Casual maintenance staff were ripped off after the new system wrongly interpreted the relevant award rates. 

Over a six-year period, the system had incorrectly concluded casual workers were not entitled to a 15 per cent loading on weekdays, which resulted in a ‘shortfall on the calculation of the 1/12th allowance which is paid in lieu of annual leave’.

Independent auditors are investigating the extent of the underpayments.

‘Our people are the most important part of our organisation, and I am deeply sorry that this error has occurred,’ Taronga chief executive Cameron Kerr said.

‘I offer my sincere apologies to those current and former staff who have been impacted.’ 

Mr Kerr said it was disappointing that the underpayments weren’t picked up earlier due to the disruptions of Covid-19 and the introduction of the new payroll system. 

‘Taronga is committed to ongoing monitoring of our industrial Awards and payroll systems to prevent a reoccurrence,’ he added.

Underpayments, late payments and leave and allowance complications continued for 18 months prior to Taronga’s ‘self-identification’ of the issue, the Australian Workers Union said. 

This comes after a snap strike was held at Taronga’s Western Plains Zoo last year, with casual staff protesting underpayments and the loss of leave entitlements by the new payroll system.

NSW state secretary Tony Callinan told 7News it took the stop-work meeting at Dubbo for AWU members to meet with disgruntled staff.

‘It’s a bit rich for Taronga to come out today and claim to be self-reporting an underpayment when the payroll audit would have never happened if not for AWU members taking action.’

The zoo’s payroll system will be corrected from July 13.