Over the last five years RSPCA Queensland has been on a transformational journey where we have sought to continually look for ways to deliver better animal, people and community outcomes. This has involved reviewing our past systems, processes and structures, and investing in new initiatives such as community outreach, learning and development programs and overhauling our IT platforms to ensure we are now fit for purpose.
During this period the strategic positioning has evolved from an organisation that reactively responds to animals in need, to one that proactively seeks to address the root causes of animal welfare issues. We have also completed a number of proactive governance reviews around historic risk and processes to ensure that the charity could move forward as a modern and sustainable organisation operating within a strong and appropriate governance framework.
The review process identified shortcomings in payroll processes established back prior to 2017 which required further investigation. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was engaged to assist in completing a proactive governance review of our payroll processes, systems and outcomes. This review identified a number of areas where historically the interpretation of certain industrial instruments was not clear, or the time and attendance system had been set up incorrectly or was not linked correctly to the payroll system.
Due to these findings, RSPCA Queensland has now reviewed every (current and former) employee’s pay from February 2017 to June 2023 to ensure that we are able to identify which employees were affected, the impact on each individual and to make back payments where errors or uncertainty was identified.
RSPCA Queensland has taken a further step and self-reported the detail and outcomes of this process to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The total amount of back payments to be made to employees is $2.8M, and 1,130 employees (current and former) were unfortunately affected.
We are now in the process of making payments to current and former employees who may have been underpaid during this period. Former RSPCA employees who have any queries regarding this process can contact [email protected].
We sincerely apologise to those team members affected and we would like to thank them for their understanding as we finalise the resolution of this matter. While the payment errors were not intentional, we appreciate the importance of correcting past mistakes and ensuring they do not happen again.
Changes and controls implemented in the payroll system are already proving effective in ensuring the interpretation of relevant industrial instruments and systems setup are appropriate. Further to this, RSPCA Queensland has implemented a new Human Resources Information System, which has replaced the historical payroll systems and ensure significantly increased systems controls are in place to prevent the errors of the past reoccurring in the future. Finally, to provide a further layer of governance and comfort for our employees, RSPCA Queensland will also conduct a further independent review in 12 months time.
