FWO takes court action against Super Retail Group

The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking action against SRG Limited and its subsidiaries Super Cheap Auto Pty Ltd, Rebel Sport Ltd, SRG Leisure Retail Pty Ltd (trading as BCF and Ray’s Outdoors), and Macpac Retail Pty Ltd.

It is alleged some breaches were ‘serious contraventions’ under the Fair Work Act.

The Fair Work Ombudsman investigated after SRG Limited disclosed widespread underpayments of thousands of employees to the FWO and the Australian Securities Exchange.

The FWO’s legal action focuses on a sample of 146 of the allegedly underpaid employees across the group. It is alleged that the employees were underpaid a total of approximately $1.14 million for their work between January 2017 and March 2019.

The regulator alleged that most of the underpayments were the result of SRG Limited’s subsidiaries paying salaried employees annual salaries that failed to cover their minimum lawful entitlements, given they generally performed significant amounts of overtime work.

The FWO also alleged that the methodology used by SRG Limited in its remediation program has resulted in only partial back payment of the sample employees.

Fair Work Ombudsman, Sandra Parker, said keeping large corporate sector employers accountable for any underpayments remained a priority.

“The breaches alleged in this case — inadequate annual salaries for employees stretching across multiple years — have become a persistent issue for businesses across many industries,” Ms Parker said.

“Every employer should be clear that if annual salaries do not cover all minimum lawful entitlements for all hours actually worked, the results can be substantial back-payment bills, plus the risk of significant court-ordered penalties. Penalties can also be higher for serious contraventions.

“This is also the first court action where the Fair Work Ombudsman has alleged breaches by a holding company for contraventions by its subsidiaries. Holding companies who allegedly knew or reasonably should have known of underpayments within their group will be held to account.”