Woolworths still risks underpaying staff at Big W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS
Some managers outside Woolies’ core supermarket business could still be being underpaid until a check on their hours worked is completed.
Business
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Woolworths is still not checking the individual hours that staff across its business are working despite pointing to this as the driver of a massive underpayment scandal.
The ongoing failure to check the actual hours worked by all salaried employees outside its core supermarket business means the retail titan continues to run the serious risk it is underpaying managers at Big W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS.
Woolworths late last month admitted it had short-changed 5700 workers up to $300 million in what stands as the nation’s biggest ever underpayment breach.
It has been investigating the matter since February.
The alarm was raised when a handful of supermarket store divisional managers who work night shifts complained junior floor staff were earning more than they were.
Those managers had been placed on annual salaries that buy out penalties, overtime and other allowances due under the General Retail Industry Award.
But the workers were still entitled to award penalty payments if their “rolled up” salaries delivered smaller pay packets than they could have earned had they been on the award.
Woolworths has said it paid salaried staff against an average roster rather than checking the actual hours worked by individual employees.
When it was prompted to check, it found almost one-third of its 19,000 salaried staff had worked hours and rosters — nights, early mornings and back-to-back working weeks — that entitled them to extra pay due under the award.
The retail heavyweight is now starting to review the pay details of all salaried staff across its businesses, which include Big W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS.
Woolworths told Business Daily it was now checking the individual pay details of salaried staff at its supermarkets and was confident they were being paid correctly.
After originally telling Business Daily it had not changed the processes around checking the actual hours worked for managers at its other retail chains, it later said it had now started to do so.
But the process of beginning to check actual hours worked for all salaried staff in these units will not be finished until the end of the month, meaning the retailer continues to run the risk that some Big W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS managers are being underpaid.
“We’re working at pace to adjust store team salaries as necessary across all our retail businesses,” Woolworths said in a statement.
“We’ve started reviewing team members’ annual salaries in Dan Murphy’s, BWS and Big W stores against the entitlements provided under the General Retail Industry Award.
“This phase of the review in relation to current salaries for store team members will be completed by the end of the month.”
Retail union the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association said Woolworths needed to move quicker to address pay issues across any of its businesses.
“Any underpayments occurring at Big W, Dan Murphy’s or BWS need to be fixed by Woolworths with utmost urgency as they are for supermarket staff,” a spokeswoman said.
Woolworths climbed 2.2 per cent on Thursday to $38.19.