ABC fails to deliver casual staff backpay

Broadcaster still working on resolving problem affecting 2500 eight months after it was first raised.

An employee walks past the logo of the ABC located at the main entrance to the ABC building located at Ultimo in Sydney. Picture: AAP

Eight months after the ABC was embroiled in short-changing up to 2500 casual staff, the public broadcaster is still working on resolving the problem that could cost it millions of dollars.

The ongoing underpayments investigation, together with the Fair Work Ombudsman, comes as ABC radio host Jon Faine criticises its prerecorded interview with celebrity chef George Calombaris, who was recently found to have underpaid his staff almost $8 million, over concern it looks like an ad.

An ABC spokesman told The Australian that it is “going through a thorough process to identify any employees who have been underpaid.”

“The ABC self-reported this issue earlier this year with the Fair Work Ombudsman and we continue to work with the FWO to finalise the matter.”

A FWO spokesman said its inquiries are “continuing and it is therefore not appropriate to comment further at this time.”

Faine, who will step down as host of ABC Radio Melbourne in October after 30 years, said live-on air this morning that he was disappointed with ABC 730 program’s interview with Mr Calombaris at one of his Melbourne restaurants, describing it as ad.

During the interview with ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales, which aired last night, the former MasterChef judge apologised for underpaying his staff, blaming youth and inexperience. He said proper payment systems had got lost when he first started out as a young chef.

Mr Calombaris’ restaurant company backpaid $7.8 million in unpaid wages and superannuation to 515 workers and was fined $200,000 under a deal with the FWO, who was first informed of the underpayment in April 2017.

Attorney-General Christian Porter recently described the underpayment as “wages theft”.

ABC head of People and Culture Rebekah Donaldson.

In January, Rebekah Donaldson, ABC chief people officer, told staff it had recently been identified that some casual employees had been underpaid.

“A detailed review is under way to confirm how penalties, allow­ances and loadings should have been calculated and applied over the past six years to about 2500 ‘flat-rate’ casual staff,” she wrote in an email seen by The Australian at the time.

Ms Donaldson said current and former casual staff who might be affected were being notified and the ABC was reviewing its processes to address the issue.

The underpayment was brought to the ABC’s attention by the Community and Public Section Union.