Woolworths faces prosecution over unpaid long service leave
Woolworths Group and its subsidiary Woolstar have allegedly failed to pay more than $1 million in long service leave to 1235 former employees.
According to Wage Inspectorate Victoria, between 2018 and 2021 Woolworths Group contravened the state’s Long Service Leave Act 2018 by failing to pay more than $960,000 in entitlements to 1199 former employees.
Meanwhile, Woolstar failed to pay $45,000 in entitlements to 36 former employees.
A Woolworths spokesperson said the retailer had self-reported the issue to the regulator last February.
“Since 2019, the group has undertaken an extensive end-to-end review of its payroll systems and processes. As a result, discrete instances of potential non-compliance about long service leave were identified.”
Robert Hortle, the commissioner of Wage Inspectorate Victoria, said employees expect businesses with significant payroll resources to get this “stuff” right.
“We have since made back payments or corrected leave balances to affected team members, including interest and superannuation.”
“They’d be disappointed to see a household name facing underpayment allegations.”
He added that long service leave is a “long-standing, valued workplace entitlement” in Victoria and the regulator is keen to ensure it is paid where owed.
The regulator has also alleged underpayments ranging between $250 to over $12,000 and has filed 1000 charges in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria regarding the matter.
Other cases have been filed against Optus, CommSec and BankWest for also breaching long-service leave laws.
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