Ruling spurs 2000 complaints

A union representing retail workers has received fresh complaints against some of the country’s biggest retailers.

It brings the total number of complaints to nearly 2000, after the Smiths City Employment Court decision earlier this month.

In May it was revealed the court had ordered the national retailer to backpay staff on or near the minimum wage for six years’ worth of unpaid morning meetings.

First Union has released a second list of companies that allegedly require staff members to work unpaid. It included Max Fashions, Life Pharmacy, Jeanswest, Hannahs, Spark, and JB Hi-fi.

The union’s retail, finance and commerce secretary, Tali Williams, said employees in the retail sector were already on low wages and could not afford to work for free.

‘‘Companies need to consider the wellbeing of their employees and their obligations to the law. They will be publicly shamed if they don’t make fixing this a priority,’’ Williams said.

The union said staff members alleged their employers had been expecting, and in some instances verbally asking or texting employees, to either stay back and work late for tasks such as cashing up or tidying up shop, or for work-related meetings and training purposes. Some complaints were also in reference to an expectation or request for staff members to arrive early to set up shop.

Spark spokeswoman Ellie Cross said that in the past six months it had received and investigated two complaints on this topic, both which were laid since the Smiths City ruling.

‘‘In both of these cases, we concluded that neither of the staff in question had been underpaid,’’ she said.

Cross said all staff members had been briefed on Spark policies and that it had designed its working-hour and pay arrangements to avoid anyone doing preparatory, handover or after-shift work without pay.

Jeanswest said it had not received any complaints and that employees were not expected to stay back after their shifts without pay.

A spokeswoman for Max Fashions said it had received one complaint from a salaried employee, involving working 15 minutes’ overtime, but that was addressed by clarifying the worker’s contractual obligations.

First Retail Group’s Chris Wilkinson said the raft of complaints in recent weeks showed how widespread the problem of unpaid work was.

‘‘The younger generation are more empowered. This is legacy behaviour and we’ve seen previous generations rationalise working overtime. But this is no longer appropriate,’’ he said.

Earlier this month Briscoes, Whitcoulls, Harvey Norman, Rebel Sport, The Warehouse, Countdown, Cotton On, Noel Leeming, Farmers, Kmart and Warehouse Stationery were the subject of complaints.

Labour Inspectorate national manager Stu Lumsden said businesses that failed to comply with the Minimum Wage Act would need to backpay staff members.

The inspectorate has also experienced a 15 per cent rise in call volumes since the Smiths City decision. Its contact centre has received 63 calls and 12 emails in relation to issues such as unpaid meetings.