Background
On 9 January 2017, employees of various TriCare aged care entities (TriCare) transitioned from the TriCare Residential Aged Care Facilities Enterprise Agreement 5 to an award – either the Nurses Award or the Aged Care Award depending on their position. As part of that transition process, pay rules in the payroll system had to be amended for those employees. Those amended pay rules applied for the period 9 January 2017 to 30 June 2023, being the date those TriCare entities ceased being aged care employers.
Payroll review
In implementing a new payroll system, TriCare identified some anomalies with the pay rules applied back in 2017. This prompted TriCare to undertake a comprehensive compliance review of its payroll system with the assistance of external advisors Kingston Reid and PwC, both having substantial experience in these types of reviews.
The compliance review has identified payroll errors that resulted in some former employees of various TriCare aged care and retirement village entities being incorrectly paid their Award entitlements between January 2017 and June 2023.
Rectification process
A payroll review of wage payments to former employees is underway with the assistance of our external advisors. TriCare expects the payroll review to be completed by the end of October 2023 and identified underpayments remedied in full by mid-December 2023.
Not all former employees have been underpaid. TriCare will write to all former employees who are impacted, advising of the amount of the remediation payment that is owed, which may include superannuation, and the date to expect the remediation payment.
We expect this next communication to impacted employees will occur in late October.
Apology to employees
We apologise to all former employees, especially those individuals that have been impacted. It was TriCare’s responsibility to ensure the amended pay rules were correct. TriCare is committed to fully rectifying all identified payroll shortfalls.
Enquiries
Please direct any queries you have on the contents of this statement to:
- payreview@tricare.com.au
- (07) 3360 9032
