Watchdog bares teeth at Caltex

CALTEX has been accused of running an “unsustainable” business model, with three quarters of audited service stations found to be in breach of workplace laws.

In a report yesterday, the Fair Work Ombudsman said an audit of 25 Caltex sites in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide found just six to be compliant – a noncompliance rate of 76 per cent.

It came just days after the company announced it was spending $120 million to buy out its franchisees and shift to an entirely company-owned model, but claimed the move had nothing to do with staff underpayment issues.

“FWO’s report shows Caltex Australia has been presiding

‘‘ MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF UNDERPAYMENTS OVER THE COURSE OF A FEW YEARS. — FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN NATALIE JAMES

over a non-compliant and unsustainable operating model,” Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said in a statement.

Caltex hit back, saying the 25 sites were “not a representation of the network of approximately 1900 Caltex-owned or affiliated sites across Australia”.

Fair Work said it had recovered $9330 for 26 workers. Ms James said the figure would be higher if the underpayments could be accurately calculated.

“There’s no question that if these findings indicate the norm in this network, and if these underpayments are replicated throughout the business month after month, we are quickly looking at millions of dollars of underpayments over the course of a few years,” she said.

“A large number of employees at the audited sites are young and migrant workers, cohorts that we know to be particularly vulnerable to workplace exploitation.”

Fair Work said its inspectors found evidence of underpayment of wages, non-payment of overtime and penalty rates, and record keeping and payslip breaches.