A payroll reconciliation put two pay clauses under the microscope
The Fair Work Commission has decided how Unitywater pays its control room staff for overtime and annual leave - with two different answers.
In a decision handed down on July 27, 2026, the Fair Work Commission arbitrated a dispute brought by a control room operator, supported by the Australian, Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union, over how the south-east Queensland water authority calculated two pay entitlements under its enterprise agreement.
The background helps explain the dispute. Control room staff at Unitywater are paid an annualised salary that includes a 40% loading. Under the agreement, that annualised salary is paid in place of the separate shift loadings, weekend penalties, annual leave loading and public holiday pay that would otherwise apply. Between 2016 and 2024, Unitywater also applied the 40% loading when staff worked overtime and while they were on annual leave.
That changed after a payroll reconciliation. During 2024, Unitywater reviewed its accounts, made remediation payments to control room staff in December 2024, and adopted a different reading of the overtime and annual leave clauses - one that did not carry the 40% loading into either calculation. Unitywater took the view that the earlier approach had overpaid staff. The union disagreed and said there had been no overpayment. With the matter unresolved, the parties agreed to put two questions to the Commission for...
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