Labor backer Trevor Lee to repay staff $2.5m

Queensland beef baron and new-found Labor supporter Trevor Lee has agreed to repay more than $2.5m to workers at his flagship company Australian Country Choice after 11 years of underpayments.

Australian Country Choice chairman Trevor Lee.

Queensland beef baron and new-found Labor supporter Trevor Lee has agreed to repay more than $2.5m to workers at his flagship company Australian Country Choice after 11 years of underpayments.

Meat workers, cleaners and administrative staff who worked at the group’s Brisbane abattoir and meat processing plant ­between 2010 and 2021 are among those underpaid overtime, shift and meal allowances, public holiday penalty rates and annual leave loading.

The businessman’s company – one of Australia’s biggest landholders – struck an enforceable undertaking agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman to pay the shortfalls, with some workers owed up to $134,000.

It has already paid 342 current and former employees nearly $3.28m in repayments.

Privately owned and family-run, Australian Country Choice Holdings has 1350 workers and is one of the country’s major beef suppliers.

The business self-­reported the underpayments to the ombudsman after an internal audit in 2020 triggered by ­employee ­“inquiries”.

Estimated to be worth $750m, Mr Lee has been a long-time donor to the Liberal National Party in Queensland, giving $70,000 to the LNP’s failed state election campaign in 2020.

It was revealed during the ­recent federal election campaign, however, that Mr Lee and his wife, fashion designer Keri Craig-Lee, hosted a Labor fundraiser ­attended by Anthony Albanese and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at home.

At the time, one invitee said tickets were $10,000, with guests encouraged to dig deeper for Labor as the festivities continued into the night at the historic home, Sutherland, which reportedly has a permanent staff of seven, in Brisbane’s prestigious suburb of Ascot.

Queensland Electoral Commission records show Mr Lee also donated more than $11,000 to Labor since May.

It emerged last year that Mr Lee had turned to the Palaszczuk government for intervention in a stoush over a development application near his company’s operations. Country Choice also recently became a client of Labor-aligned lobbyist Anacta, co-founded by former ALP state secretary Evan Moorhead.

Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Michael Campbell said staff of Mr Lee’s company had been underpaid entitlements under awards and enterprise agreements.

The company told Fair Work it believed the under­payments were caused by the business incorrectly interpreting employee contract clauses, which it thought enabled the offset of entitlements with a higher overall rate of pay. It also failed to ensure pay rates ­increased in line with annual ­national minimum wages rises.

Mr Campbell said an enforceable undertaking was appropriate because Country Choice co-operated and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying underpayments.

“Under the enforceable undertaking, ACCH has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure workers are being paid correctly,” Mr Campbell said.

These measures include conducting, at its cost, audits of its compliance with workplace laws over the next two years, as well as reporting to the ombudsman on the extensive upgrade of its human resources and record keeping systems.