Australia's NAB agrees to $169 million payout after long-running pay errors

National Australia Bank (NAB) has agreed to repay 65,999 current and former employees after underpaying them $127 million over 14 years. 

The bank has entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), announced on 12 November 2026.

Under the agreement, NAB will pay $127 million in back wages, $34 million in interest and $8 million in superannuation. 

It will also make a $2 million contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund. This is the largest contrition payment included in an FWO undertaking.

The underpayments occurred between 2012 and 2026. They affected casual, part-time and full-time employees across every Australian state and territory. 

Those affected included customer support advisers, home lending bankers, branch managers and project managers.

NAB first reported the issue to the FWO in late 2019 after identifying errors in the implementation of its enterprise agreement.

However, the bank found that the problems had not been fully resolved when it introduced a new agreement in 2024. 

Employees continued to receive incorrect payments.

The FWO identified several contributing factors, including weak governance, poor record-keeping, outdated payroll technology and limited specialist payroll capabilities. The bank also failed to conduct required reconciliation checks against the Banking, Finance and Insurance Award 2010.

Individual back-payments range from less than $5 to more than $87,000, with an average of approximately $1,934. NAB has paid at least $155 million so far.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said, “It’s particularly disappointing to see these types of large and long-running underpayment issues in such a well-resourced employer, including where it negotiated its own legally enforceable enterprise agreement terms but failed to make sure it had in place fully compliant payroll systems capable of giving effect to those terms before they became operational.”

“Complying with workplace laws is an organisation-wide responsibility, and planning for compliance with new enterprise agreement terms should begin early to ensure workers receive what they are owed,” Anna added.

Under the undertaking, NAB must introduce several measures to prevent further underpayments.

For the first time in an FWO undertaking, the bank will establish a steering committee to oversee the planning and implementation of new enterprise agreements. 

The committee will be chaired by NAB's group executive for people and culture.

Other commitments include an independent audit of its new payroll platform, improved tracking of employee complaints and staff forums. The bank must also introduce mandatory training on recording additional working hours and provide regular compliance updates to its board.

The case highlights the need for closer coordination between HR, payroll, industrial relations, technology and compliance teams.