Target comes forward with wage theft of $9 million, Wesfarmers reveals

The fan favourite discount retailer has become the latest company to admit to the widespread shame of underpaying workers, Wesfarmers admits.

Major retail group Wesfarmers has added to the humiliation of the sector’s “endemic problem” of wage theft, with target staff being ripped off by $9 million.

The Perth-based conglomerate admitted to the underpayment this morning when reporting the company’s half-year earnings.

“Payroll errors” at Wesfarmers now equates to $24 million after including the previously revealed $15 million at its industrial and safety division.

This morning’s announcement comes on the back of Coles setting aside $20 million on Tuesday to correct its own payment scandal, following a long list of other businesses across the country.

Wesfarmers said the latest round of wage theft was discovered after the group conducted extensive reviews of its pay records.

“Immediate steps are being taken to rectify identified issues, notify and repay affected team members, including interest, and ensure accuracy in the future through a robust program of auditing and monitoring,” managing director Rob Scott said in a statement.

RELATED: Woolworths underpays staff $300 million over nine years

RELATED: George Calombaris’ wage theft scandal is tip of the iceberg

RELATED: Coles admits to wage theft, sets aside $20 million

Attorney-General Christian Porter blasted corporate Australia for the “endemic problem” and threatened to introduce new industrial relations reforms to name and shame those guilty of wage theft.

“Get your house in order,” he said yesterday.

“We’ve had large organisations that involve themselves in any number of social issues that spend an enormous amount of time, money and effort self-promoting with PR campaigns and national advertising telling us how good they are.

“Pay your people properly.”

Mr Porter implored companies to invest and redirect resources to make sure staff members are paid properly and basic workplace law is followed.

“Like most Australians, the Government has been appalled by the number of companies that have recently admitted short-changing their staff – in some cases by hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

“These are not unsophisticated businesses.”

The Morrison Government is due to introduce legislation in coming week to criminalise the most serious forms of worker exploitation with significant jail terms and fines, having already increased civil penalties.

“But it is clear to me that more still needs to be done to motivate companies to improve their performance, such as disqualifying directors of organisations that continue to get it wrong,” Mr Porter said.

Target is the latest retailer to admit wage theft. Picture: Cameron Bates

The admission by Coles and Wesfarmers comes after a dismal stretch of widespread wage theft cases across retail networks, hospitality businesses and other employers.

In October, Woolworths revealed its own payments scandal involving nearly 6000 salaried team members over nine years, amounting to $300 million.

These include Neil Perry’s Rockpool Dining Group, which owes staff at least $10 million, and fellow celebrity chef George Calombaris, who repaid workers $7.8 million.

Others include the ABC, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, Sunglass Hut, 7-Eleven, Bunnings, and Super Retail Group.

The retail union has claimed credit for the revelations at both Coles and Target, saying underpayment in Australia is now a “full blown epidemic”.

Both companies “constructively” engaged with the union’s industry wide audit that kicked off in November but said other retailers have been reluctant to take part.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) wants to be granted greater power to access and investigate payroll books, insisting the threats of criminal penalties from the government won’t work.

“We will only know that he (Attorney-General) and the Morrison government are fair dinkum about ending this epidemic if they restore the rights of unions to have ready access to company payrolls to conduct spot checks,” national secretary Gerard Dwyer said.

“This simple step would ensure hard working Australians are paid according to the law as well as avoiding embarrassment for the companies involved, damaging their brands, their reputation and their market value.”

On Tuesday, Coles chief executive Steven Cain apologised to those impacted by the scandal, which related to a small group of salaried team members given a wage below the industry reward.

“We are working at pace with a team of external experts to finalise our review,” he said in a statement.

“Once completed we will contact all affected team members, both current and former, to remediate any identified differences in full.

“Coles has implemented steps to improve our systems and processes.”

The review into Coles’ payment irregularities discovered about 5 per cent of salaried team members at the company’s supermarket and liquor division had been underpaid.

Those covered by the enterprise agreement, however, were not ripped off by the giant retailer, which accounts for about 90 per cent of its workforce.

If you were underpaid by Coles, Target or any other retailer and want to have a chat, get in touch at [e-mail] or @James_P_Hall