Sacked Woy Woy Leagues staff score win after Roosters club pay dispute
Despite paying the sacked workers, the Easts Group maintained in court that the five workers were entitled to nothing because they had already been stood down during COVID-19 restrictions.
NSW
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The battling staff of the Roosters’ club on the Central Coast have finally been paid the money they were owed after they were sacked when the club closed.
But the Easts Group - home of the Roosters - maintained in court on Thursday morning that the five workers were entitled to nothing because they had already been stood down during COVID-19 restrictions.
The Federal Circuit Court in Sydney was told that the five workers who had all worked for the Woy Woy Leagues Club for over five years had now been paid their termination pay with interest.
The Daily Telegraph revealed this week that the three men and two women were owed between $4702 and $5877 after Easts closed the Woy Woy club in April. It had been in financial dire straits for a number of years despite Easts moving in to rescue it in 2012 as part of the Roosters support for league on the Central Coast.
The United Workers Union claimed Easts had broken the law under the Fair Work Act. Despite the workers now being paid, the union’s lawyer Armen Aghazarian told Judge Sandy Street that they wanted to continue the case to clarify the law as a “matter of principle”.
“You are telling me that you terminated them but you didn’t pay them. Why?” Judge Street asked lawyer Mickael Ushakoff, who was representing Clubs NSW on behalf of Easts.
Mr Ushakoff told the court that Easts had legal advice that the five workers were not entitled to pay in lieu of notice because they had not been earning wages while they were stood down at the time the club was closed. They had been stood down on March 23 and the club was shut permanently on April 9.
The judge sent the case to mediation to settle the legal question.
The Woy Woy club closed with almost 4000 members after plans to revamp it and develop it as part of an over-55 accommodation and office hub was knocked back by the State Government’s Independent Planning Committee.
Easts counts among its directors Roosters’ chairman Nick Politis, Wizard Home Loans founder Mark Bouris and Endemol Shine production company boss Mark Fennessy.