Crown Resorts reimburses underpaid employees

Crown Resorts has back-paid employees over AU$1.2m (US$801,000) after an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Australia.- Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth has paid more than AU$1.2m (US$801,000) to employees after Crown Resorts self-reported underpayments to the Fair Work Ombudsman. It made the report in response to a letter urging payroll compliance.

An audit conducted by Crown prior to the letter’s receipt identified potential underpayments at Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth. The underpayments were attributed to misclassification of employees, inadequate annual salaries, and record-keeping failures. Employees were deprived of entitlements such as penalty rates, minimum hourly rates, overtime and paid leave rates.

The repayment initiative involved 192 current and former employees, with the remaining impacted people to receive their payment owed within 180 days. Over AU$567,000 in back-payments have been made to 102 Melbourne workers, ranging from AU$22 to AU$66,714, and more than AU$659,000 to 90 workers in Perth, ranging from AU$5 to AU$55,192.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker, said: “Under the EU, Crown has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure all its current and future workers are paid correctly. These measures include commissioning, at its own cost, two independent annual audits to check its compliance with workplace laws.

“As I called out to the ASX top 100 in early 2020 and have said consistently ever since – employers need to place a high priority on their workplace obligations. Crown’s failures to apply relevant awards to some of its employees and to ensure annual salaries met all minimum entitlements for hours worked led to long-running underpayments of its staff, and a larger remediation bill.

“All employers need to invest the time and resources to ensure they are meeting all lawful entitlements.”