Supermarket giant Coles underpaid workers $20MILLION as it becomes the latest Australian company embroiled in a wage payment scandal
- Supermarket giant Coles admitted to underpaying 1,150 workers over six years
- Underpayment totals $20million and was discovered during a company review
- Coles is the latest Australian company embroiled in a payment scandal
Coles has confessed to underpaying its more than one thousands staff members up to $20million over six years.
The announcement was made on Tuesday morning as the company released its half-year results.
The supermarket giant becomes the latest Australian company embroiled in a payment scandal.
Coles has confessed to underpaying its staff $20million over six years
The cause of the underpayment, which the company claims affects 1,150 workers, was due to discrepancies between their remuneration and the General Retail Industry Award (GRIA).
Managers from the company’s supermarket and liquor stores are owed a combined $20million.
Coles boss Steven Cain has issued an apology for team members.
‘We aim to make Coles a great place to work, and apologise to those team members who have been unintentionally affected.
‘We are working at pace with a team of external experts to finalise our review.
‘Once completed we will contact all affected team members, both current and former, to remediate any identified differences in full.
Last year Woolworths has admitted to underpaying thousands of workers for several years
‘Coles has implemented steps to improve our systems and processes.’
The Fair Work Ombudsman has been notified.
The issue was discovered during a review, which was launched in November last year after rival Woolworths was found to have been underpaying thousands of its workers up to $5,200 each year for almost a decade.
Australia’s biggest supermarket chain failed to pay 5,700 of its salaried workers in compliance with the General Retail Industry Award as much as $300million.
The company estimated the issue dated back to 2010, when the modern award was implemented.
Woolworths said it would fully rectifying the payments.