Best & Less forced to pay back staff more than $5.2million after workers were incorrectly paid
Best & Less forced to pay staff more than $5.2 million after employees were incorrectly paid
- Best & Less forced to pay back staff
- Employees were wrongly paid by the retailer
Australian retailer Best & Less has been forced to pay back staff more than $5.2 million after it was revealed that employees were being paid incorrectly and were not properly compensated for overtime, fines and annual holiday entitlements.
The underpayments, reported by the discounter itself in December 2020, affected 686 current and former store managers who worked at the company between 2013 and 2020.
Arrears ranged from $4 to $42,144, with staff owing an average of $7,600. All told, underpayments totaled $5.21 million, plus nearly $500,000 in lost pension.
The staff, who were fixed-salary managers, were found to have been paid rates that did not match the 2010 General Retail Industry Award.
The oversight affected workers across Australia in both regional and metropolitan stores.
Australian retailer Best & Less has been forced to pay back more than $5.2 million to staff after it was revealed that employees were improperly paid and were not properly compensated for overtime, fines and annual leave entitlements
A statement from the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) also states that Best & Less does not correctly register and track the hours worked by store managers and assistant store managers.
The retail giant has also been slapped with an enforceable commitment to ensure it pays back all money owed by October. The company said it had already repaid a “large majority.”
The fine also includes a $200,000 dues payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund and additional requirements for establishing an employee information line and displaying the underpayment notification on Best & Less’s social media and website.
Kristen Hannah, acting ombudsman for fair work, said this was a warning to employers to make sure they met their obligations in the workplace.
“Insufficient wages have become a persistent problem in many Australian workplaces,” she said.
“Employers should be aware that employees should receive at least the minimum entitlements they are owed under the applicable corporate instrument, such as compensation.
“Employers who take a set-and-forget approach and fail to record and reconcile actual hours worked when paying salaries risk significant backlogs for their hard-working staff.”
Best & Less manages 189 contracts across Australia and employs over 4,300 staff. At the time of publication, the retailer has a market capitalization of $235,062,994.
Best & Less were approached for comment.