Woolworths to repay $50 million to staff for years of wage theft

Woolworths will pay out around $50 million to former and current staff after settling a class-action lawsuit brought against the supermarket giant for underpaying thousands of workers.

Adero Law firm filed the class action in November 2019 on behalf of Woolworths supermarkets employees and workers from other Woolworths-owned chains including Big W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS.

The supermarket giant will now make ex-gratia payments of $2,500 plus retirement benefits to about 20,000 current and former salaried team store members who worked at Woolworths-owned stores between January 2010 and September 2013.

The underpaid workers are expected to receive their money sometime before Christmas.

The $50 million worth of ex-gratia payments and retirement payments will be made on top of the final settlement figure for the class action.

Woolworths has decline to disclose the final settlement figure at this stage.

This is not the first time the supermarket chain has been caught undercutting its staff.

The Fair Work Ombudsman is currently suing the company for allegedly underpaying around 19,000 workers a total of $1.1 million in wages and penalty rates.

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci said the $50 million payments were to cover workers who were underpaid beyond the legal limitation period of the FWO’s civil proceedings (prior to September 2013).

“We said at the outset that we would extend our review beyond our legal obligations and look back to 2010,” Mr Banducci said on Friday.

“With detailed analysis challenging in the earlier years, we felt an equal and broadbased payment to all potentially impacted team members was a fair and equitable way to approach remediation for this period.

“We’re pleased to have settled the class action proceedings. This will ensure our approach to full remediation can be appropriately addressed through the FWO proceedings.”

Woolworths, Big W, Dan Murphy’s and BWS workers who were underpaid after September 2013 will receive their repayments once the court reaches a determination on the FWO’s $1.1 million case against the supermarket chain.