(Recasts first paragraph; adds Qantas comment)
March 13 (Reuters) - Qantas Airways Ltd QAN.AX underpaid hundreds of employees by about A$7.1 million ($4.47 million) after self-reporting non-compliance with employment contracts, the airline and a government organisation said on Friday.
A misclassification issue affected 1,000 current and former employees, leading to about 640 being underpaid while the remainder were overpaid A$22 million, Qantas said in a statement.
The revelation adds to a growing list of underpayment scandals hitting several of Australia's biggest companies including supermarket chains Woolworths Group Ltd WOW.AX and Coles Group Ltd COL.AX and the country's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX , among others. entered a court-enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman to fix the misclassification issue that the airline self-reported in February last year.
The issue saw some employees subject to the wrong terms and conditions and as a result received incorrect benefits, Qantas said.
The government organisation said underpayment occurred from June 2011 through June 2019 and that head office staff were also affected.
Qantas agreed to an independent audit for the next three years as part of the Enforceable Undertaking to address the issue.
The federal government has said it would introduce laws that criminalise what it called "wage theft", as well as banning people from being company directors if they preside over underpayment. = 1.5873 Australian dollars)
Australia's Coles reports staff underpayment, flat H1 profit