Eyewear company’s pay offer ‘appalling’

A company owned by a billionaire is under fire for saying it would guarantee to pay Auckland staff only 25 per cent of their usual wages during the most recent lockdown.

Italian eyewear giant Luxottica, which owns OPSM and received nearly $3 million in wage subsidies in New Zealand, told affected staff this month they could top up their weekly pay with their annual or long service leave allowances.

First Union’s Tali Williams said the offer was ‘‘appalling’’. It was the most miserly move by a retailer during level 3 she had seen.

The company has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Luxottica New Zealand director James Melton emailed the company’s Auckland staff on February 16, the day after a snap level 3 lockdown came into force in the city.

The business was required to close its OPSM stores in Auckland during the three-day lockdown, he said.

It understood the impact these situations could have on staff and wanted to do what it could to support them.

‘‘We will be guaranteeing our permanent employees a minimum 25 per cent of contracted hours. We will work with each employee on an individual basis for what this means for them,’’ Melton said

The business would ‘‘try our best’’ to shift employees’ schedules from Thursday to Sunday as much as possible, then would offer 25 per cent for the difference of hours worked vs contracted hours.

It offered employees the options of topping up their weekly pay with annual or long service leave.

Williams said the next-lowest pay guarantee offer she had seen was from a major clothing retail chain, and was for 60 per cent.

‘‘I think [the 25 per cent offer] is appalling,’’ she said.

Williams is calling on the company to repay its staff for the hours they were set to work during lockdown.

Luxottica received about $2.74m during the first Covid-19 wage subsidy, for 448 employees.

The Italian conglomerate bought a controlling stake in OPSM in 2003.

It is the world’s largest eyewear company and its founder and chief executive Leonardo Del Vecchio has a reported net worth of US$25.8 billion (NZ$35.2b).

Dundas Street Employment Lawyers senior associate Chloe Luscombe earlier told Stuff that unless there was a clause in employee contracts dealing with shift cancellations, the workers should be paid.

The Employment Relations Act required shift workers to have shift cancellation provisions in their employment agreement, as well as terms that stated how much notice had to be given and the compensation if that notice was not given.

According to the law, the notice of shift cancellation in the employment agreement has to be ‘‘reasonable’’.

‘‘I think [the 25 per cent offer] is appalling.’’

Tali Williams

First Union