Stephen Troeth of Gadens Lawyers this week detailed the Enforceable Undertaking aged care operator Japara agreed with the Fair Work Ombudsman after Japara identified and volunteered it had short paid $4.8M to employees over six years.

Despite listing on the stock exchange last July for a value of $707M, it turns out Japara was still using a manual payroll system.

In November it discovered that it had been short paying overtime when staff had worked more than 8 hours on a day shift, 10 hours on a night shift or more than 76 hours in a fortnight.

4,850 current and former aged care staff were affected.

The Ombudsman decided not to prosecute; the rectification agreed included:

• Fully electronic time recording system being implimented
• Engage a third party auditor and maintain for three years
• Provide access to independent financial advice to current employees short paid by over $10K
• Donate $20K to Alzheimer’s Australia for medical research