Southern Cross Care Caught Underpaying 5,500 Workers $11.7 Million

On 2 April 2026, the Fair Work Ombudsman announced that Southern Cross Care (NSW & ACT) signed an Enforceable Undertaking to repay $11.7 million to approximately 5,500 aged care and home care workers.

The underpayments spanned from July 2017 to October 2024 — more than seven years of workers not getting their correct pay. Affected employees include nurses, home care workers, cooks, cleaners, and facility managers.

The root cause? A broken time-and-attendance system combined with manual payroll errors. Southern Cross Care self-reported the issue after an internal audit found systemic problems with how shifts, overtime, and penalty rates were being calculated.

An Enforceable Undertaking (EU) is a legally binding agreement between an employer and the Fair Work Ombudsman. It's an alternative to court prosecution — the employer admits the underpayment and commits to:

• Repay every cent owed, plus interest
• Commission an independent audit of their payroll systems
• Implement compliance measures (new payroll software, staff training, ongoing reporting)
• Publish a public notice acknowledging the breach

If the employer breaches the EU, the Fair Work Ombudsman can take them straight to court — and the original admission can be used against them. It's a serious document.

Enforceable Undertakings are typically used for large, self-reported underpayments where the employer cooperates. If an employer doesn't cooperate, the FWO prosecutes instead — and since 1 January 2025, wage theft is a criminal offence carrying up to 10 years imprisonment.

This isn't the first aged care underpayment — and it won't be the last. The sector has unique payroll complexity:

• Multiple awards — aged care facilities often have nurses (Nurses Award), care workers (SCHADS Award), and support staff (Aged Care Award) all under different pay structures
• Complex shift patterns — sleepover shifts, split shifts, 24/7 rosters with different penalty rates for evenings, nights, weekends, and public holidays
• Frequent award changes — the aged care sector has had multiple pay increases from the FWC's work value case, with different implementation dates
• Understaffed HR/payroll teams — many providers run lean admin teams that can't keep up with compliance

The combination of these factors means if you work in aged care, you are statistically more likely to be underpaid than workers in most other industries.

You don't need to wait for your employer to self-report. Here's how to check right now:

1. Find your award. Most aged care workers are covered by the Aged Care Award, SCHADS Award, or Nurses Award. Check your employment contract or payslip.
2. Check your base rate. Use our Pay Rate Lookup to find the minimum hourly rate for your classification level.
3. Check your penalty rates. Use our Penalty Rate Calculator to verify weekend, public holiday, and overtime rates match what's on your payslip.
4. Compare against your payslips. Go through at least 3 months of payslips. Check every line — base rate, overtime, penalties, allowances, and super.
5. Use the Underpaid Checker. Our Am I Being Underpaid? tool walks you through the process step by step.

If you find a discrepancy, raise it with your employer first. If they don't fix it within a reasonable timeframe, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 — they can investigate and recover back pay going back up to 6 years.

Since 1 January 2025, deliberate wage theft is a criminal offence under the Fair Work Act. Employers who intentionally underpay workers face:

• Up to 10 years imprisonment for individuals
• Fines up to $7.825 million for companies

Southern Cross Care's enforceable undertaking was likely accepted (rather than criminal prosecution) because the underpayment resulted from system errors rather than deliberate wage theft, and the employer self-reported and cooperated.

But if your employer knowingly pays you less than the award rate — that's a different story. They can be criminally prosecuted. If you suspect deliberate underpayment, report it to the Fair Work Ombudsman.