Australia’s workplace watchdog the Fair Work Ombudsman recovered more than AUD 532 million (USD 332.5 million) for 384,805 underpaid workers in 2021-22, a record sum of back-paid wages and entitlements for a record number of employees.

The recoveries are three times higher than the previous record recoveries in 2020-21, and more than quadruple that reached in 2019-20.

More than half of the year’s recoveries came from large corporate employers, who back-paid nearly AUD 279 million (USD 174.4 million) to more than 267,000 employees. This was six times the amount returned from large corporates in the previous financial year.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the agency’s consistent work across many years addressing underpayments in Australia’s large corporations had hit significant milestones in 2021-22.

“The Fair Work Ombudsman has created an environment that expects large corporates to prioritise compliance. Combined with stronger, targeted compliance and enforcement action across all our work, the result has been another record amount of wages back in workers’ pockets,” Parker said.

In 2021-22, the Ombudsman took two of Australia’s largest employers to court: the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Coles Supermarkets. Both matters are still before the Federal Court.

In total, there were 137 new litigations in 2021-22, 80% more than the year before. This is a record number of litigations for the Ombudsman and the first time it has filed 100 litigations in a year.

In concluded cases, the Ombudsman secured approximately AUD 2.7 million (USD 1.7 million) in court-ordered penalties, of which about AUD 1.8 million (USD 1.1 million) were from matters involving exploited migrant workers.