Australian Retailer Woolworths Underpays Staff by $300million

Australian supermarket giant Woolworths has been added to a list of businesses recently exposed for underpaying their staff. The retailer revealed on Wednesday that the introduction of a new enterprise agreement had highlighted the underpayments, which range back to 2010 and total around $300million. It is said to be the biggest underpayment on record.

The underpayments have affected ‘salaried team members’, and not checkout or floor staff. Staff will begin to see some of the repayments before Christmas, with the full repayment cycle expected to be completed by September 2020.  

The exposure follows a spate of other businesses alleged to have underpaid their staff, including the Rockpool Group in Sydney, Michael Hill Jeweller, Coffee Club, Subway and 7-Eleven Stores. 

Underpaying staff, even unintentionally, can not only harm your employees, but it can also harm your authority and trust, your reputation, and ultimately your profits. 

By utilizing a workforce management tool such as Alloc8, you can negate the risk of underpayment by having all of your enterprise agreements and state awards built into the system. This will ensure that your employees will be paid the correct wage for the correct amount of hours, on the correct enterprise agreement or state award. 

Having this built into your workforce management software will save you admin time, keep you compliant, and ensure that your employees are never underpaid. 

To find out how your business could benefit from a workforce management tool, contact us today. Because underpaying your staff is a risk you can’t afford to take.