Jewellery chain Lovisa allegedly paid teen employee in ‘gift cards’

A former Lovisa employee has shone a light on the jewellery chain’s “horrible” working conditions on TikTok.

A former employee at a popular Australian jeweller has shone a light on the company’s “horrible” working conditions, claiming she was paid in gift cards for hours of work.

In a series of TikTok videos about the company, Shannen Von Munster, who was 19 when she started working at a Lovisa store, claimed she was paid a $50 gift card after working compulsory stocktake shifts, which required her to come into the store three hours before it opened.

“I worked at Lovisa in 2013 … and when I tell you I’m traumatised, I f**kin’ mean it,” the now-30-year-old said in a TikTok video, which has amassed more than 900,000 views.

“Instead of paying us cash they would pay us in store gift cards. But not stores that you know [where] you could buy stuff that you actually needed. [No,] Lovisa gift cards so you could buy more garbage jewellery to wear to work or give to your friends and loved ones.”

Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Von Munster said the gift cards didn’t help with paying the bills as a university student.

“I can’t pay petrol and bills in costume jewellery,” she said. “I also worked with single mothers, and they were trying to provide for their kids and you cannot feed your kid jewellery.”

Shannen Von Munster said she was left ‘traumatised’ . Picture: @vonmunste/TikTok

She said there was also an “expectation” staff would use their gift cards to purchase products to wear to work, as employees were required to wear at least five items of jewellery each shift.

When Ms Von Munster complained to a superior about the form of payment following the stocktake shifts, which occurred every couple of months, she couldn’t get a straight answer.

“I remember saying, ‘This is cooked, I don’t need a gift card, I need money. Why are they doing this?’ And [the senior staff member] gave me no reasoning whatsoever, he said, ‘That’s just what they do.’”

The high turnover of managers also didn’t help the situation.

“We had a new regional manger every two months so any complaints that you did make, ultimately, didn’t go anywhere. We would get a new manager and you would have to start the process all over again with someone else.”

Adding to the issues around pay, Ms Von Munster also claimed staff worked “mountains of unpaid overtime” and were made to attend unpaid compulsory meetings and training sessions.

In a separate video recalling more “Lovisa war stories”, Ms Von Munster said she experienced multiple urinary tract infections (UITs) while working for the company, after she was left with no other option but to close down the store if she needed to go to the bathroom.

“On Sundays there would be one person in the store for the whole day so it would be two three-hour-shifts and you would have no crossover [with another employee],” she explained.

“That meant you didn’t get any kind of break so if you needed to go to the toilet you needed to shut the whole shop. And to shut the whole shop there would have to be no customers and on a Sunday in a Westfield that doesn’t really happen.”

She said staff eventually “cracked down” on employees for closing the store to go to the bathroom, leaving them with no choice but to “hold it”.

“I ended up with multiple UTIs and when I called in sick, I was told either come to work or don’t come back at all.”

Ms Von Munster claimed it happened to others as well.

“We got UTIs because we were holding it for like three, four hours at a time. Which is cooked and I was looking in the [TikTok] comments and this was such a common occurrence across the country. There was stories of girls who were peeing in the back room, peeing in bottles [and] peeing in buckets, because they were just absolutely busting.”

She would have to close down the store if she was the only employee on had to go to the bathroom. Picture: TikTok@vonmunster

Eventually the company ‘cracked down’ on the practice, she claimed. Picture: TikTok@vonmunster

Suffering from undiagnosed endometriosis at the time, Ms Von Munster said she also found herself needing to go to the bathroom to change sanitary products regularly.

“On a shift when it was particularly bad, I would have to close the store every two hours for five to ten minutes so I could go to the bathroom so I didn’t bleed through my clothes, basically.”

She explained that she told her employer, “This is what’s going on with me and I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it,’” before claiming she was told by a member of staff to “get bigger tampons”.

After less than a year working for the company, she decided to leave after what she claims was workplace bullying.

“[Staff members] would make really awful comments about my looks, my weight, my partner at the time, and they would ultimately make me absolutely miserable,” she said.

“The amount of time I spent crying in the back room … I would cry in the car on the way home, I would dread going to work. It was just horrible. I recorded all these incidents and I reported them to [a senior staff member] and nothing was done, I was basically just told to get over it.”

Ms Von Munster’s videos prompted a number of former and current employees to come forward with their own horror stories.

“I was forced to close the store by myself without any training shift at 16. I only got paid ‘til 15 mins after closing time. [I] was there for over an hour,” one person commented.

“I once was violently throwing up and they still told me to come to work so I sat behind the till and threw up in front of customers for four hours,” said another.

Another said they were planning to quit “tomorrow”, adding, “I’ve been there for two years and we’ve had 10 regionals and five store managers since I’ve been there.”

Lovisa is a leading fast fashion jewellery retailer. Picture: Brenda Strong/News Regional Media

The company’s issues extend beyond customer facing roles, with a former warehouse worker previously telling news.com.au staff were often provided faulty equipment to use, dodgy trolleys, rusty box cutters and ladders with broken wheels.

“The wheels to these ladders just didn’t work,” said Daniel Sedigh.

“When you’re on it, it’s very wobbly. It’s fine if you are up one or two levels. But if you have to go up all the way up – things get scary.

“You don’t have anybody there – like the protocol wasn’t for somebody just stop their packing to hold the ladder for you.”

Daniel Sedigh worked at a Victorian Lovisa warehouse between 2015 and 2017. Picture: Supplied

Mr Sedigh said much of the overseas stock was in “dusty” and “mouldy” boxes, which made breathing difficult and led him to wear a mask to work at the suggestion of his doctor.

“I started wearing masks, but then nobody else was. So I just kind of went along with it for the next year, but you know, it was like a constant thing.”

National law firm Adero is considering pursuing a class action against Lovisa over a potential breach of its enterprise agreement.

“Adero Law has become aware of a pattern of potential underpayments occurring at Lovisa Pty Ltd (Lovisa), that involves a failure to pay minimum rates of pay arising under the Lovisa Enterprise Agreement 2014,” the firm stated.

Adero’s website says it was aware of claims that staff had been directed to skip meal and toilet breaks, undertake unpaid overtime and work additional hours during Christmas sales periods without appropriate overtime rates.

“If these practices have occurred across Lovisa stores, Adero may pursue a class action against Lovisa and seek that compensation be paid to any employee whose entitlements were not paid in full,” the firm said.

However, according to its website, the law firm is only inviting current and former employees to register, if they worked for the company “anytime between 2016 and 2022”, meaning those like Ms Von Munster wouldn’t be able to take part.

“I’m mad about it,” she told news.com.au.

“I’m very much about the rights of workers and fair and decent treatment … and reading the comments it has just made me absolutely despair over how many people have been treated this way. And also how common it is in Australian retail.”

Lovisa currently scores a 2.3 out of five rating on Indeed.com’s employee review portal from hundreds of reviews.

News.com.au has reached out to Lovisa and Adero Law for comment.

Originally published as Jewellery chain Lovisa allegedly paid teen employee in ‘gift cards’