Macquarie hit by new employee pay claims

Macquarie Group has been hit with a fifth lawsuit for underpaying its financial advisers.

The Macquarie Group has been hit with a fifth lawsuit, taking total claims to more than $12 million. Picture: Bloomberg

Macquarie Group has been hit with a fifth lawsuit for underpaying its financial advisers, which brings the total claimed to at least $12 million, with more pain looming as additional former staff mull legal action.

The latest lawsuit was lodged with the Federal Circuit Court on Friday by a group of 20 advisers who worked for subsidiary Macquarie Bank for up to 30 years.

In a statement of claim filed with the court, the advisers claim Macquarie failed to pay the minimum wage set out in the finance sector award, and also breached the Fair Work Act by failing to fork out holiday pay and other entitlements including leave loading and compassionate leave pay.

Macquarie has already settled two similar matters involving former advisers within its private wealth division. In February, filings showed a Federal Circuit Court matter between a group of former staff led by Joshua Bull against Macquarie was closed after court-ordered mediation.

Details of the settlement were confidential. Mr Bull is now employed by Ord Minnett.

That group’s settlement followed a 2017 agreed resolution between Macquarie and eight former directors and advisers, on similar pay entitlement issues.

$130.62 Macquarie Group closed up $1.20 p

A further two groups of former Macquarie advisers are still pursuing the bank in court over entitlements. And sources told The Australian a sixth group, largely based out of Adelaide, was also preparing legal action against Macquarie on similar grounds.

The latest lawsuit is led by Michael Briody, who worked for Macquarie between August 2008 and May last year and claims to have been underpaid by almost $270,000.

Another plaintiff, John Marr, claims to be owed more than $272,000 for work done over more than 30 years, between 1988 and 2018.

The advisers claim they were paid “by way of commission only” and money they received every month was “an advance against commissions” rather than a wage.

In past cases, Macquarie has argued the monthly payments were wages, and exceeded the minimums set out in the award.

Similarly, the company has previously claimed payments made during leave periods qualify as holiday pay.

Mr Briody declined to comment and the lawyer representing the former advisers, Adrian Barwick of WilliamsonBarwick, could not be reached yesterday.

A Macquarie spokeswoman said the company “categorically rejects that these employees weren’t being paid the minimum wage and will strongly defend the case”.

Macquarie’s legal woes over its pay structure have been accelerated by a round of redundancies among advisers as the wealth arm was merged with the private bank. The group moved to shrink its advice arm following a stoush with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission over potentially shoddy advice given by poorly supervised planners.

Despite its woes, Macquarie’s advice division was not examined by last year’s banking royal commission.