One of Australia’s best-known surf labels has been forced to pay hundreds of its retail staff penalty rates for the first time in eight years after a 19-year-old union member axed its long-expired workplace agreement.

The Fair Work Commission on Friday terminated Billabong’s decade-old agreement that allowed it to legally pay 1500 workers at 101 Billabong and Surf Dive N Ski stores around the country less than the award minimum since 2015.