Fair Work Ombudsman investigates charities, fundraiser MonDial

A Sydney call centre operator has come under investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman after admitting underpaying staff.

A Sydney call-centre operator that raises money for some of the world’s biggest charities has come under investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman after admitting to underpaying staff.

The workplace watchdog said it was investigating MonDial Telephone Fundraising over its failure to pay workers in line with award rates, as revealed in The Australian yesterday.

Charities contracted to Mondial also could come under investigation. A number of charities hire MonDial to raise funds, including Greenpeace, Oxfam, the Australian Marine Conservation Soci­ety, The Wilderness Society and Unicef.

The charities said they were unaware of MonDial’s underpayment until contacted by The Australian, and had contracts with the company that stipulated it comply with workplace laws.

A spokesman for the ombudsman said yesterday: “FWO has commenced an investigation into MonDial’s compliance with the Fair Work Act.” The investigation came “after reviewing the article in The Australian” but the ombudsman declined to comment further “because it is a live operational matter”.

MonDial wrote to staff last month disclosing the underpayment and offering a final confidential settlement based on the award rates. Staff were underpaid up to $6.56 an hour, according to a letter seen by The Australian, which had attached a deed that the worker must sign before receiving a settlement.

The deed states: “The ­employee agrees that the settlement sum ... can be offset against any sums found to be due as a ­result of any third-party investigation, including an inquiry or investigation by the fair Work Ombudsman.”

National Union of Workers lead organiser Tim Gunstone yesterday welcomed “the FWO finally investigating widespread wage theft in the for-profit charity fundraising sector”.

“It is another example of a regulator having to fix the messes created by third-party employment arrangements,” he said. He added that it was “time for ... structural responses to companies outsourcing labour and responsibility, not just never-ending investigations”.

He called for charities to take more responsibility for the work of third parties. “Charities must be more proactive in ensuring that people collecting money in their name are being treated fairly and lawfully,” he said. “Until that happens, we will continue to see exploitation and underpayments.”

The labour movement is pushing to unionise the for-profit charitable fundraising sector alongside aged-care assistants and farm workers. Mr Gunstone said: “As unions, we need to look further afield than just those areas that have traditionally been ­organised.

“Today, many unions, including the NUW, are seeing growth in new areas where the work cannot be offshored and where traditionally there has been little or no union presence.”

Unions “have spent more time bemoaning the decline of organised industries than they have looking for those growth industries where workers are being exploited and desperately need the power of a union”, he said.

“Fortunately, this is changing,” he added.