QSuper Class Action

You are a group member if you meet the criteria set out in the statement of claim, which is a court document filed by the Applicant when the class action began. You may be a group member (or “Fund Member”) in this class action if you held a QSuper superannuation account from May 2016 and were eligible for: White Collar or Professional occupational rates; or Standard occupational rates and you were under 39 years of age. You may also be a group member if at any time after 1 July 2016: you represented or received a payment from a deceased Fund Member who met the eligibility criteria above; or you were the former spouse of a person who met the eligibility criteria above and you received a transfer from a Fund Member, pursuant to an order or settlement in a Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) proceeding.

Occupational rating affects how much you pay for insurance in your superannuation to reflect the level of risk related to your job or occupation. The class action alleges QSuper failed to introduce a system to occupationally rate members and/or failed to sufficiently communicate these changes to members. If you were eligible for Standard (and under 39 years of age), White Collar, or Professional occupational rates, the class action alleges you were: Charged significantly more for your life insurance than you should have been; and Suffered superannuation investment losses.

In the class action, Standard, White Collar and Professional rates all refer to the premium you were charged for insurance cover within superannuation. Generally, each of these rates were lower than the ‘Default’ rate. Whether you fall into Standard, White Collar or Professional for the purpose of the class action, depends on the level of risk related to your job or occupation from 1 July 2016. Standard rate – Applicable if your occupation was not classified as high risk, professional or white collar. For example, this may include nurses, health care workers/carers, or manual light positions. A person eligible to be occupationally rated as “Standard” is only a group member if they were aged between 17 and 39 as at 1 July 2016. This is because the “Standard” rates for persons aged over 39 years were higher than the “Default” rates QSuper charged fund members who had not elected to be occupationally rated, meaning they suffered no loss. White collar rate – Applicable if you spent 80% of your time in an office or classroom environment performing primarily administration or managerial duties as at 1 July 2016. For example, this may include managers, teachers, or call centre operators. Professional rate – Applicable if you were university educated relevant to your occupation, or a senior manager working in an office with an annual salary of $120,000.00 or more, as at 1 July 2016. For example, this may include surgeons, doctors, or executives. The types of occupations that are likely to fall into one of the above occupational rates include: Teachers, teacher’s aides and school principals Lawyers Engineers Information technology roles Finance / accounting roles Doctors and other allied health professionals Executive or management roles (with a primary office-based job) Nurses (aged under 39 as at May 2016) Marketing roles. The class action does not include police, emergency services, cleaners, security guards and heavy manual and other hazardous occupations. Under the occupational rating system introduced by QSuper in May 2016, these were classified as 'High Risk’ and were not eligible to pay to lower premiums for insurance in superannuation. Generally, High Risk rates were higher than standard, white collar and professional rates.