Ripping off workers

More wage theft at Woolworths

I write a lot of resumes for young Adelaide people wanting to get in the FMCG industry. It’s often they’re first job.

Woolworths ripping off their workers is a blight on the industry.

The total cost of staff underpayments at Woolworths has ballooned to more than half a billion dollars in underpayments.

The FMCG giant said it had uncovered a further $144 million in unpaid wages through a payroll review.

Combined with the $427 million in underpayments discovered by Woolworths in 2020, the total cost of the wage scandal is $571 million.

This looks more like a business strategy than an error.

Woolworths said the remainder of its payroll is still being assessed.

Adelaide is the capital for wage theft in Australia. We do a lot of one page resumes for migrants and others who want to work as domestic and commercial cleaners.

Just under $20,000 in wages have been recovered for 29 cleaners around Adelaide by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), after an investigation into 17 commercial contract cleaning businesses.

The most common breaches were failures to pay penalty rates, underpayment of minimum hourly rates and failure to keep employee records.

When applying for a job, do a quick news scan on Google to see if they have ‘form’ with underpaying staff. Always check the payslip and check superannuation is being deducted.

Ten of those companies — which were investigated after anonymous tip-offs, customer enquiries or requests for help from the FWO — breached workplace laws.

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