Woolworths says it had paid $477 million in underpaid wages and entitlements to workers to date. It said this figure is a “best estimate” of outstanding repayments but was “subject to verification, finalisation of payments … and the conclusion of the group’s engagement with the relevant regulators”.Ībout $70 million is still due to hourly paid workers, while $206 million is owed to salaried workers. There is at least $276 million worth of underpaid wages and entitlements the company must still remediate. Woolworths said on Wednesday that it repaid $85 million to staff in the six months to December 31. It is now estimated at more than $750 million. Since then the total value of underpayments has ballooned several times. The failings are just the latest blowout in Woolworths’ wage theft scandal, which began in 2019 when the company revealed about 5700 staff were underpaid between $200 million and $300 million. Previously, Woolworths has revealed hundreds of millions worth of staff underpayments due to improper payment of entitlements with full and part time workers often being incorrectly paid after they had taken leave.ĭetails buried in the company’s half-year financial statements reveal that the new wage theft was “predominately” due to failures to comply with enterprise agreements for hourly paid staff between the 20 “financial reporting periods”. Woolworths Group boss Brad Banducci was not asked about the new underpayments in a Wednesday briefing, although he did refer to “the same kind of challenges … addressed across the rest of our group”. Woolworths still owes ‘estimated’ $276 million

Woolworths also declared an increased dividend of 46 cents per share. Sales rose 4 per cent to $33 billion while supermarket inflation came in at 7.7 per cent for the December quarter, up from 7.3 per cent quarterly. The disclosure of new underpayments came as Woolworths posted a bumper $907 million half-year net profit, up 14 per cent on the prior year.

“With our investigation ongoing it is not appropriate to comment further at this time.” “The Fair Work Ombudsman’s investigation into Woolworths Group Limited is continuing,” the spokesperson said. In a statement a FWO spokesperson said Woolworths flagged “further potential non-compliance” with them before their result on Wednesday. The latest revelations are bad timing for the retailer, which is preparing a Fair Work Ombudsman prosecution at the Federal Court during June. Corporate filings on Wednesday suggest total worker underpayments uncovered at Woolworths Group since 2019 are now worth more than $750 million – with about $276 million still yet to be repaid to its staff.

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