Coles latest catch in short wage scandal

THE bill from major retailers who have publicly confessed to or been caught out underpaying workers has soared past $575 million.

The nation’s underpayment scandal widened yesterday with Coles becoming the latest retail giant to admit to shortchanging its workforce.

Coles said it has set aside $20 million to cover workers who had missed out on wages in its supermarkets and liquor division. About 600 workers have been short-changed over six years and the retail giant is continuing to probe its books for more underpayments. The average worker is due to pick up about $25,000 in back pay.

Other major retailers to announce underpayments include Woolworths, 7-Eleven, Super Retail Group, Michael Hill, Caltex Australia, Bunnings and Sunglass Hut.

The bill — which totals $576.4 million — does not include high-profile underpayment cases in the restaurant industry and also omits a range of other businesses including Qantas Airways, Commonwealth Bank, Wesfarmers, IBM, Maurice Blackburn and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

News of Coles’ underpayments emerged as Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter launched a discussion paper into criminalising underpayments of staff and turbocharging civil penalties against directors who systematically rip off workers.

“If any more evidence was needed that this is an issue that required a full-court press across policy for government, that evidence today came in the form of Coles,’’ Mr Porter said.

“It goes without saying that for the Government this is incredibly disappointing, frustrating.” Mr Porter took aim at businesses for being “so far away, many of them, from their knitting’’ and told them to “pay your people properly’’.

Coles chief executive Steven Cain apologised for the underpayments and noted they were not deliberate and impacted less than 1 per cent of the company’s workforce.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker took aim at Coles for not informing the workplace watchdog of the underpayment earlier.