“We have since made back payments or corrected leave balances to affected team members,including interest and superannuation,” the spokesperson said.
“We have apologised to affected team members and strengthened our payroll systems to address the long service leave issues we identified.”
The spokesperson said it would not be appropriate to comment further as the case was before the court.
The inspectorate has separate cases against Optus,CommSec and BankWest before the court over alleged breaches of long service law. In 2021,Coles was found to have underpaid 4096 staff a total of nearly $700,000.
Coles pleaded guilty to seven rolled-up charges and was fined $50,000 in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Magistrate Justin Foster said there had been a “systemic failure” by Coles to pay the entitlement.
Unlike some other workplace entitlements,long service leave applies to casual and contract workers in Victoria,along with permanent full and part-time employees.
Victoria’s long service leave laws require all employees who have worked continuously with one employer for at least seven years to be entitled to long service leave. Under the law,they are to be paid any unused long service leave once they leave their job.
Failure to pay the leave can result in large fines and criminal convictions for companies.
Research commissioned by the inspectorate shows that of about 1200 people,only 12 per cent were aware that casual staff were entitled to long service leave and 9 per cent of contract staff were entitled to it. Of the respondents who gave an answer,a majority incorrectly assumed you needed 10 or more years of service before being entitled to leave.
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“The amount of underpayment never tells the full story in long service leave matters,” Hortle said. “It’s hard to put a value on the leave workers were initially denied. Time that could have been spent with family,travelling or just relaxing.”
The Victorian government created the inspectorate in mid-2021 to enforce laws covering wage theft,child employment,long service leave and independent contractors. It has provisions that allow the jailing of bosses who deliberately engage in wage theft,although these laws do not apply to long service leave.
Besides the long service leave,Woolworths has admitted underpaying thousands of staff $571 million as part of a wages scandal involving salaried managers in its stores. The supermarket has claimed this was due to “inadvertent” errors.