Japanese store Daiso in Melbourne’s CBD shortchanges workers by $40,000, second breach since 2012
UPDATE: A POPULAR retail store in Melbourne’s CBD has underpaid its workers by tens of thousands of dollars in just three months, the Fair Work Ombudsman has found.
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A MELBOURNE retail store underpaid its workers — many of them young backpackers and international students — by tens of thousands of dollars in just three months, the Fair Work Ombudsman has found.
It comes after an investigation by Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James revealed a Daiso (Australia) store — which stocks Japanese goods — failed to pay the correct minimum hourly rates, overtime, penalty rates, annual leave loading and other entitlements to 27 workers between September and November last year, shorting them almost $40,000.
Most of the underpaid employees were aged between 19 and 26.
They included backpackers in Australia on 417 working holiday visas and Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and Japanese nationals on student visas.
The investigation was sparked by complaints from several employees.
The Midtown Plaza store — which sells homewares, food and drinks, accessories and novelty items — first came to the Ombudsman’s attention in 2012, when complaints from three workers resulted in an investigation which found the employees had been underpaid almost $12,000.
Fair Work inspectors and representatives of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association met with the company director, Mei King Hii, at the time to educate her about her obligations under workplace laws.
The most recent incident has seen Ms Hii and Daiso (Australia) enter into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman to avoid litigation.
The undertaking orders the company to back-pay all outstanding entitlements by the end of November, apologise in writing, post notices at the Midtown Plaza shop and in the Herald Sun explaining its breaches and promising such behaviour would not occur again and donate $5000 to Youth Law to help it promote compliance with workplace laws.
The company is also required to engage external specialists to audit the company’s compliance with workplace laws each year for the next three years, self-audit their employment records and train staff with managerial responsibility on employer obligations.
The company found to be at fault — Daiso (Australia) — is a separate business to Daiso (Australia) Pty Ltd, which is the official subsidiary of Daiso Japan Sangyo and headed by Kit Cheong.
A Daiso (Australia) Pty Ltd spokeswoman said the company paid all employees the required Retail Award Rates and did not condone Ms Hii and Daiso (Australia)’s actions.
The spokeswoman said Daiso (Australia) Pty Ltd chief executive Ms Cheong had no role to the breach.
“We (Daiso (Australia) Pty Ltd) are committed to providing all employees with a safe and fair work environment,” she said.