Michael Hill jewellers admits it underpaid staff by up to $25 million   


July 11 2019
ABC News

Jewellery chain Michael Hill says it will be repaying its retail staff up to $25 million in wages after finding errors in its application of the retail award.   
Key points:

    An initial review revealed between $10 million and $25 million in wage underpayments over six financial years
    Michael Hill has now begun a more detailed review of all employee records, rostering practices and payments
    The company has been under financial pressure — its annual sales have dropped and a number of stores have closed

The Brisbane-based chain is the latest in a string of organisations, to admit to staff underpayments, and will face questions from the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).

A spokesman for FWO said the agency was not made aware of the underpayment of workers at Michael Hill International prior to the ASX announcement by the business.

"The Fair Work Ombudsman is concerned by the scale of the reported underpayments and will contact Michael Hill International," he said.

The FWO has recently successfully prosecuted a number of companies for unlawful underpayments, resulting in the courts imposing hefty penalties on companies, such as 7-Eleven.

Michael Hill, which operates more than 300 stores and employs about 2,600 staff globally, said an initial review of its Australian retail employment contracts and rostering practices was undertaken by its new chief executive Daniel Bracken, with the help of accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

This initial review showed non-compliance with some industry requirements over the past six financial years and may cost the jewellery chain up to $25 million to remedy.

"We will move as quickly as possible to rectify any underpayments with those team members affected," Mr Bracken said in a statement to the ASX on Thursday morning.

    "I will be in contact with all team members today to apologise on behalf of the company and to provide an outline of the process we are following to establish who is impacted."

More detailed review now underway

The company has now begun a more detailed review of all employee records, rostering practices and payments, which would "take several months to complete".

"The remediation of these issues, which occurred over the last six financial years, is estimated to be a one-off cost in the range of $10 million to $25 million," the statement said.

"It is not presently anticipated that rectification and remediation will have any material impact on the underlying earnings of the company for financial year 2020 or any future financial years."

Most of these big chain jewellery stores are pretty dodgy.

The staff are generally treated bad, and work long hours without being paid overtime.

Most are expected to open and close the store in their own time, which is unlawful, and many are not allowed toilet breaks etc.

Michael Hill isn't a bad guy, from what I've heard.

I spend some time down in Arrowtown (NZ), which is where he lives, and most locals speak highly of him.

I suppose other people are running the business now, and he might not be aware of what's going on.

Gnads wrote on Jul 12^th, 2019 at 8:52am:


It's amazing how many employers see nothing wrong with making their staff open and close the stores on their own time.

Many companies have (unlawful) policies in place which state that their employees must arrive at least 20 minutes before their paid start time, in order to prepare and open the shop, and then stay back after their paid shift is finished to clean the floors, do the banking, and lock up the store.

Thieves.