Cleaners at several of Myer’s Melbourne sites have been short-changed thousands of dollars in wages, a Fair Work investigation has determined.
Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors made the discovery in December 2014 when they conducted an unannounced visit to Myer’s Fountain Gate site. They were checking whether Myer’s contracted cleaning companies were compliant with the Fair Work Act and Cleaning Services Award 2010.
Myer’s service agreement is with RCS Cleaning Services, which sub-contracted to Pioneer Cleaning Australia Pty Ltd, which sub-contracted to Preston-based A&K Saana Services.
A&K Saana had agreements to clean Myer sites at Knox City, Highpoint, Fountain Gate and Altona. Fair Work inspectors interviewed two employees at the Fountain Gate site, finding they were each being paid $17 per hour, regardless of how long they worked or on what day of the week.
After meeting with A&K director Admir Kolakovic, company business manager Adnan Kolakovic and their accountant, inspectors found that nine cleaners across several of Myer’s Melbourne sites were being underpaid.
The underpayment amounts for those employees ranged from $225 to $1009 for the period of May 4 to 31, totalling around $6300, which included underpayment for their minimum hourly rate, minimum four-hour engagement period, broken shift allowances, penalty rates for early and late shifts, overtimes rates and penalties for weekend and public holiday work.
Myer management said it had been working with the FWO in its investigations, and in the last six months had sought information from Pioneer Facilities Services to demonstrate its compliance with workplace laws.
“Pioneer Facilities Services did not provide us with enough information to satisfy Myer,” a company spokesperson said.
“Myer takes its duties as a responsible Australian employer very seriously. All the company’s suppliers, and their subcontractors, are expected to comply with their contractual obligations, which include full compliance with workplace laws.”
Myer terminated its contract with Pioneer in June.
Fair Work found as well as under-paying direct employees, A&K Saana Services had misclassified a number of its staff as independent contractors. A&K Saana is one of several companies sub-contracted by Pioneer to be listed as misclassifying and underpaying its employees.
Russell Kennedy principle Anthony Massaro said that this kind of thing occurs frequently.
“In my experience award breaches most often come about through mistakes – employers are unaware they are in breach – because the awards can be unclear and the employer might misunderstand what the award is actually saying,” Mr Massaro said.
Pioneer is not the only company to come under fire this month for similar circumstances. Grill’d employee Kahlani Pyrah has taken her employer to the Fair Work Commission for underpayment, and an article posted by Kotaku journalist Mark Serrels revealed that EB Games is potentially short-changing employees thousands of dollars in wages, as well as facing accusations that one of its district managers is racially and verbally abusing employees.
Five people have made an official complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission regarding their treatment at EB.
A&K director Admir Kolakovic has entered into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman to ensure behavioral change and future compliance with workplace laws.
