Worker’s contract offer labelled ‘egregious’ after going viral

A worker’s new contract that appeared to sneakily cut their pay has gone viral.

A warehouse worker’s query about a new contract that appeared to sneakily cut their pay has been described as “one of the more egregious” a senior employment lawyer has seen.

The worker, who did not disclose their place of work, has revealed they have since been dismissed after questioning the motivation of bosses and formally resigning in a meeting this week.

Their post on social media platform Reddit attracted more than 1000 comments after they asked for advice saying they believed the employer was “trying to take me for a ride”.

It included an email which detailed how under the new terms their pay would “increase” from $60,000 “exclusive of superannutation” to $65,000 “inclusive of superannuation”.

The email posted to Reddit.

The employers said use of the word “exclusive” was a typo.

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The email stated this new deal would also cover “any hours that you are required to work outside of your standard hours”, and other entitlements such as allowances, overtime, penalty rates and annual leave loading.

The worker said they had confronted their bosses, who told them the use of the word “inclusive” in the new offer was a “typo”.

But they decided to quit their job – and claimed to have been dismissed after handing in their notice.

Patrick Turner, an employment and industrial Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, said it appeared by reading the email: “The employer is clearly trying to have the employee on. The changes would leave the worker worse off than they currently are.”

After being urged by Reddit users not to sign the new deal, some of whom questioned whether it might simply have been a mistake, the worker said they confronted their bosses in a meeting.

“They tried to play it off as a typo but also said they had an external party draw it up, he looked at it and sent it to me,” they wrote.

“I asked ‘so this went through a few people before it got to me? How come no one picked up on this ‘typo’ before I did?’

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Patrick Turner from law firm Maurice Blackburn.

“No real answer just saying over and over again it was a typo, he’s done hundreds of these contracts before everyone gets the same thing.”

The worker said they had been assured the mistake would be rectified. They said they signed the contract and noticed the error afterwards.

But they decided to quit after receiving a new job offer and gave a week’s notice, according to an update posted this week.

“A minute later my manager comes up and says they are gonna dismiss you today, don’t worry about the week notice basically,” they said.

Mr Turner said people should not get their employment advice through platforms like Reddit and instead talk to their union or a lawyer.

The worker decided to quit after being offered a new job. Picture: Stock

He said wrapping in entitlements like annual leave loading could be permissible but only if a worker’s salary exceeded the minimum rate under the award, or if there was an enterprise agreement in place.

Mr Turner said there were also strong protections under the Fair Work Act against employers making false or misleading representations to workers, such as telling them they were not entitled to parental leave.

“This is definitely one of the more egregious examples that I’ve seen,” he said.

“But sadly it is not uncommon … it’s important that everyone stays vigilant.

“Once you’ve signed, the ship is sailed.”

Originally published as Worker’s contract offer labelled ‘egregious’ after going viral