Woolworths has revealed another $144 million in underpayments to workers covered by its three main enterprise agreements, while warning its backpay bill for its earlier revelations about shortchanging salaried employees could still go higher.
McDonald's is facing fresh claims it deliberately denied paid rest breaks to thousands of workers in its own restaurants, with the fast food behemoth already up against a class action and multiple cases accusing it of conspiring with franchisees on the issue.
The FWC has refused to accept the pandemic as an excuse for an employer's late payment of wages over a six-month period, agreeing to consider a worker's general protections application on the basis that the delays left him with no choice but to resign.
The FWC has warned employers that the "clock is ticking" for Work Choices "zombie" agreements in rebuffing a large employer's bid to keep a 2008 flat-rate deal operating until May or June, coinciding with the 10-year anniversary of its nominal expiry.
Corporate unease over payroll systems will only have grown today after Bupa became the latest big employer to disclose widespread underpayments, the Australian arm of the global health group revealing it owes 18,000 employees up to $75 million before interest and superannuation.
McDonald's has been hit with a second Federal Court case over its alleged failure to provide paid rest breaks, with a RAFFWU-backed class action claiming thousands of past and present workers are potentially owed millions over the "systemic" issue.
The FWO alleges in court proceedings filed yesterday that Coles owes its managers about $100 million more than it has made allowance for following internal payroll audits looking at the underpayments.
The Morrison Government has today introduced legislation in response to two Migrant Workers' Taskforce recommendations to make it an offence to pressure temporary migrant workers to breach their visa conditions and to create a new power to ban employers that underpay them.
In a further warning on the importance of accurate payroll systems, the Australian Red Cross Society has become the latest surprising addition to the list of underpaying employers to have entered enforceable undertakings with the FWO after the charity self-reported short-changing employees a figure now estimated to top $25 million.