The Community and Public Sector Union says hundreds of Northern Territory public servants are owed unpaid legal entitlements totalling millions of dollars, with cases dating back to 2003, and called on the Chief Minister to intervene and force an audit of all money owed across departments.

CPSU NT regional secretary Kay Densley said the government needed to make good on restitution offers for the money owed, including for Education Department workers not being paid more than $1 million worth of entitlements due after an NT Commissioner for Public Employment determination undermining successive agreements.

She said it has been years since CPSU and members raised the issue, and despite agreeing to calculations and amounts, still no payments had been made to workers.

Ms Densley said some members also took the issue of shift workers not being paid their public holiday rates to the Fair Work Commission at the end of 2020. She said the commissioner directed the money be paid back.

“While the government claims over $1.5 million has been paid out already, the union has not been provided with any genuine or comprehensive reports to confirm this claim. There are still hundreds of workers waiting for this compensation,” she said.

Ms Densley said the Attorney General’s Department was yet to finalise the agreed back pay for unpaid on-call overtime payments to a group of workers. She said one employee who had retired was owed more than $25,000.

While the Industry, Tourism and Trade Department and Territory Families Department workers, who are rostered to take calls or undertake call-outs outside of normal hours, had not been paid correctly for this, or for the additional hours they have worked, she said.

“These phone calls in the early hours of the morning disturb their sleep and their households. Again, despite agreement that monies are owed, it has taken years for a small number of payments made, but many are still outstanding,” she said.

Ms Densley said many other workers including rangers, health, child protection and education workers, geologists, scientists, surveyors and technicians who travel all around the Territory have had their enterprise agreements for compensation for this travel and hardship ignored.

Public Employment Minister Paul Kirby did not provide a response to the claims.

Ms Densley said with the NT Government wage freeze policy locked in for four years, and inflation and cost of living rising, it was another “slap in the face” for workers.

“If over-payments accidentally occur the money is recouped quickly, sometimes before employees actually have the evidence of why they were overpaid. Why are all these underpayments not as important?”

“CPSU members are calling on the Chief Minister to intervene and ensure that known outstanding monies are paid now, and that there is a comprehensive audit of all departments and any monies owed to employees and ex-employees be made this year.

“Wage theft is real theft; NT public service workers deserve their fair pay.”