Ambulance Victoria superannuation stuff up: What you need to know

Thousands of ambulance workers in Victoria were paid the wrong amount of pension benefits for more than six years.

Three days after Ambulance Victoria’s CEO resigned over a protracted pay dispute, an external investigation has found that around 3,000 workers faced payment errors between July 2017 and December 2023.

Some guaranteed pension contributions were underpaid, while others were overpaid due to errors in the wage code.

“Please be aware that this error is in no way the fault of AV payroll employees,” a Victoria ambulance union said in a bulletin.

‘This once again underlines the need for AV to invest in good payroll systems, readable payslips and sufficient payroll staff to cope with the growing workload.’

For most workers, underpayments amounted to less than $1,000.

The money owed, plus 10 percent interest per year, has been sent to the tax office and will be transferred to staff-designated pension accounts, Ambulance Victoria said in a statement.

“We would like to apologize to those affected by this error in the payroll code. We have initiated a procedure to reimburse employees whose pension benefits were underpaid,” said an AV spokeswoman.

Ambulance Victoria CEO Jane Miller resigned on Tuesday following a vote of no confidence from the union

‘This has consequences for employees who are members of pension funds, and these are mainly our business and temporary employees.’

The service said the error has been resolved and that no attempts will be made to reclaim any overpaid amounts.

The mistake comes at a tumultuous time for the service, after Jane Miller stepped down as CEO on Tuesday.

Her resignation after 18 months in the role came after the ambulance workers’ union filed a motion of no confidence in the service’s leadership.

In July, six payroll officials were fired over an alleged $3.5 million embezzlement scheme, with senior management subsequently accused of leaking information about the investigation.