Sydney butcher chain under fire over claims of unpaid superannuation

An ugly fight is playing out between a staff member and a NSW butcher chain over claims of unpaid superannuation.

An ugly fight is playing out between a staff member and a NSW butcher chain over claims of unpaid superannuation.

Mr D’s Traditional Meats has been operating for three generations across several locations in Sydney’s west but one worker looking to retire claims he has been dudded out of thousands of dollars in unpaid super payments.

Hugo Alvarez, 74, has been working for Mr D’s Traditional Meats for a number of years, earning $40,000 annually.

A superannuation slip shared with news.com.au did not show any record of a super contribution from his employer from July 2022 to July 2023.

Mr Alvarez doesn’t speak English very well so his sons Marcelo and Luis have taken on their dad’s case and have been contacting his employer and the ATO on his behalf.

“It’s a real mess,” Marcelo, his son, who is 51, told news.com.au.

Mr D’s Traditional Meats said that they were working with the Alvarez family to resolve the issues and that new financing is coming in which should enable the business to pay back all its debts.

Mr Alvarez has been a butcher for 45 years and is now wanting to enjoy retirement but can’t do so in the way he imagined without his superannuation paid back.

The Alvarez family have been campaigning for their father’s superannuation.

Mr D’s Traditional Meats accepted that they owe Mr Alvarez around $16,000.

In documents provided to news.com.au, Mr Alvarez has made a complaint to the tax office which found he was owed at least $2000 in superannuation.

However, the figure is closer to $16,000 for non-payment spanning back years, based on his time sheets, a figure Mr D’s Traditional Meats has accepted.

Mr Alvarez’s sons claim they have been chasing the company for years over unpaid superannuation and are fed up.

“The ATO is very unhelpful,” Marcelo said, having lodged a complaint with the tax office.

They “are as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike,” the other son, Luis, told news.com.au.

The tax office would not comment on their investigation into Mrs D’s Traditional Meats citing privacy reasons.

However, an email to his sons supplied to news.com.au shows that as of mid February, the tax department said they were commencing legal action by issuing a statutory demand to “the two employer entities that owe superannuation to your father”.

Mr D’s Traditional Meats said it wasn’t aware that legal action had been taken, but was in negotiations with the tax office over an unpaid tax debt separate to the superannuation amounts owing.

The butcher chain said they had “been in constant contact” with staff over their superannuation.

“A lot of it (the non-payments) had to do with the refinance, coming out of Covid,” the business added.

“The last couple of years have been quite difficult for us.” The business said they were only now “getting into the full swing” of things and that the refinancing “will give us that cash flow that we chewed up through Covid”.

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Mr D’s Traditional Meats said it has experienced a rough few years in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: Mr D’s Traditional Meats/Instagram

In December, the butchery informed them that Mr Alvarez’s superannuation details would be provided in a couple of days.

“That’s the response we and my father get every time,” Marcelo lamented.

They were also informed Mr Alvarez would receive all his money by late January.

This deadline has since been pushed back to the end of this month.

Mr Alvarez’s federal member, Michelle Rowland, told the family she had made representations on his behalf to the Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones, raising concerns about the unpaid super.

Meanwhile, the Fair Work Ombudsman confirmed to news.com.au that an investigation is underway into Carico Meats Pty Ltd, one of the entities Mr Alvarez is employed by and which operates Mr D’s Traditional Meats.

Mr D’s Traditional Meats says it has new financing coming in soon and hopes to pay off all debts. Picture: Mr D’s Traditional Meats/Instagram

In May last year, the Albanese government unveiled a raft of new measures as part of the federal budget including an additional $40 million of funding into the ATO to crack down on companies failing to pay superannuation to staff.

From July 1 2026, employers must pay their employees’ super on the same day that they pay salary.

At the moment there is a quarterly deadline, which is how companies have ended up owing thousands to workers in superannuation debt.

Non-payment of superannuation costs Australians an eye-watering $3.3 billion every year.

Unpaid super is most damaging to young, low-paid or migrant workers in industries like hospitality, retail and construction.

These workers, often working on casual or hourly contracts, may struggle to track whether they are being paid super even if their pay slip tells them they are.

The Australian Taxation Office has the power to investigate businesses that don’t pay their staff super and force them to do so.

The ATO returned an estimated $365 million in unpaid super to workers in 2022 – but it was only about 10 per cent of the amount lost according to even conservative estimates.

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Originally published as Sydney butcher chain under fire over claims of unpaid superannuation