Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman says her office is investigating whether BHP's "disappointing" underpayment of 30,000 employees was due to neglect.
BHP apologised last week for underpaying the workers since 2010, with an average of six leave days in total being incorrectly deducted from affected employees.
The matter is now being examined by Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker.
"Our concern is how can there be an oversight and a mistake that runs for 13 years without there being negligence and neglect on the part of the company," she told ABC Radio Perth host Nadia Mitsopoulos.
The major mining company’s Australian president Geraldine Slattery said in a video statement to employees last week that the company was deeply sorry.
"This is not good enough and falls short of the standards we expect at BHP," she said.
"We are working to rectify and remediate these issues, with interest, as quickly as possible."
Money to be repaid
BHP has estimated it will cost around $400 million to pay back its employees.
Ms Parker said she was disappointed when she learned of the underpayments last week.
She urged the company to cooperate with her office, saying it would be requesting further information from BHP and making sure all underpayments would be adequately repaid.
"It's not good enough for any employer, let alone one of Australia's largest and most sophisticated employers, to underpay their employees on such a large scale," she said.
Investigations by the federal ombudsman's office, which is responsible for enforcing workplace laws in Australia, can lead to fines or penalties if a company is found to have committed an offence under the Fair Work Act 2009.
Ms Parker said her office was constantly reminding companies to stay up to date with audits, check their payroll systems and ensure they had the right technology to stay within the legal requirements.
Other companies taken to court
In 2019 Ms Parker wrote to 100 corporate entities, including BHP, to alert them to her concerns about payroll issues.
“We were seeing issues, hearing issues, we had concerns and we called on them to audit their payroll and check against their enterprise agreements,” she said.
“We also called on the boards to take some responsibility and oversight.”
The ombudsman has commenced legal action against the Commonwealth Bank and Commsec, alleging underpayments of more than $16 million to around 7,000 employees.
Ms Parker said her office has also taken legal action against Super Retail Group, whose retailers include Supercheap Auto, Rebel and BCF, and signed undertakings with Qantas, Westpac and David Jones.
"We're taking it really seriously but it's an issue that's certainly not going away," she said.
"On a positive note, it's good that the companies are waking up. and it's good that they're auditing and it's good that they're making good.
"But it is taking a long time and it's a frustrating process."
BHP has said it will contact current and former employees who have been affected by underpayments.
