Identification of underpayments impacting current and former employees

-- Updated: 13 April 2026 --

In July 2025, we identified four issues involving underpayments that have affected how we pay some of our employees. We regret that this has occurred and are sorry for the impact this has had on employees who have been affected.

Following an internal review, we found issues involving:

• High Intensity Support Allowance: An allowance was not paid correctly to some employees supporting NDIS participants with High Intensity Support funding. This affected employees whose role classification is below Level 3.1 under the Scope (Aust) Enterprise Agreement in Victoria (since December 2019) and NSW (since November 2024). Note: Home@Scope employees are not affected. 

• First Aid Allowance: The process for claiming the First Aid Allowance has not always been clear or applied consistently for eligible employees in Victoria. Note: Home@Scope and Scope NSW are not affected. 

• Level 1 Support Workers: A small number of employees classified at Level 1 in operational roles have not received the correct pay progression. Note: a small number of employees in both Scope (Aust) and Home@Scope are affected. 

• Enabling Functions Classification: We have identified a small number of classification issues with how some roles in enabling functions have been classified under the SCHADS Award. Note: a small number of enabling functions employees are affected. 

Our review has since identified further underpayment matters which we have reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

• Unsubmitted shifts NSW: In some cases, some unsubmitted shifts in our VisiCase system were not later confirmed if they had been worked or not. As a result, there may be instances of employees not being paid for unsubmitted shifts which had been worked. Note: a number of NSW based employees are affected.
  
• Annual leave for shift workers: The National Employment Standards (NES) provides shift workers an additional week of annual leave under certain circumstances. There may be cases where employees who left Scope employment were not paid the pro-rata amount for the part-year worked if they were on track to receive the NES leave entitlement. Note: a small number of former shift worker employees may be affected.
  
• Shifts over 10 hours: Certain role classifications can agree to work additional ordinary hours per shift under the 2019 and 2024 Scope Enterprise Agreements. Hours worked beyond 10 per shift under the 2024 Enterprise Agreement have been paid as overtime. This may mean some employees, including part-time employees, have not been paid their contracted ordinary hours under the 2024 Scope Enterprise Agreement. If so, this will have resulted in under-accrual of leave and underpayment of superannuation. Note: up to 55 employees working in the former Uniting (Victoria and Tasmania) Limited sites that transferred to Scope in November 2022 may be affected.
• Overtime Meal Allowance: Employees covered by the Scope or Home@Scope Enterprise Agreements are entitled to an overtime meal allowance in certain circumstances when they work longer than their usual finish time, that should be paid once the overtime is worked. The current process is for eligible employees to manually claim the overtime meal allowance. As there are low claim rates, this has likely resulted in underpayments. Note: some employees covered by the Scope Enterprise Agreement or the Home@Scope Disability Services Enterprise Agreement Victoria may be affected.

When we identified the issues, we appointed independent experts to undertake a detailed review and help calculate underpayments. We have self-reported these issues to the regulatory body, the Fair Work Ombudsman, and have also informed the relevant unions.

Our priority from here is to fix our systems and processes so that all current staff are paid correctly moving forward and to repay all affected employees – past and present – everything they’re owed. This includes wages and superannuation, with adjustments for inflation and investment earnings over time.

This matter does not impact our ability to continue delivering high-quality support and services to clients and families. Our financial stability remains strong, and our focus on clients remains unchanged.

We’re sorry that we’ve let our people down in this way. They are the ones supporting our clients to belong and thrive, which is at the heart of everything we do, and we’re committed to doing the right thing by them, now and into the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will I find out if I have been impacted?

We are working through each of the matters with our external partners who are reviewing, analysing and cross-referencing the relevant data on each of these matters to identify everyone who has been impacted – both current and former employees.

We are contacting affected employees one matter at a time, and as soon as the back pay calculation has been finalised for each affected employee. Since mid-December 2025 we have paid current employees and emailed former employees who have been affected by the following matters:

• Level 1 Classification
• First Aid Allowance
• High Intensity Support Allowance
• Unsubmitted Shifts in NSW.

We continue to work through all other matters and will contact those affected as soon as final analysis and calculations of payments owing can be confirmed.

When will I get my back pay?  

We are paying employees affected by these matters what they are owed as soon as the back pay calculation has been finalised for each matter.

To pay former employees we need to confirm we have the correct contact and account details. To do this we have a staged process, starting with emailing former employees and asking them to access our secure DocuSign form to provide the information. Resolving this is a top priority and we will pay all employees – current and former – as soon as possible.

I think that I have been impacted but I haven’t heard anything. What can I do?

If you are impacted, we will contact you directly about back pay in the coming weeks with more information and to ask you to confirm your contact and account details.

If you worked at Scope after November 2019 and believe you may be impacted and have not heard from us, you can:

• Email [email protected] or complete the Employee Enquiry Form.

• Call HR Help on (03) 9852 7198 (8:30 am–5:30 pm, Mon–Fri) 

You may also be asked to complete a form to help us confirm your details. 

For more information on back pay read the FAQs for former Scope employees.