Casino giant Star Entertainment is facing a hefty remediation bill after admitting to underpaying thousands of staff over a six-year period.
The $3.4bn gambling empire – which runs casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast – on Monday said it had alerted regulators and unions after discovering it had underpaid 2200 current and former staff to the tune of $13m.
The discrepancy was found during a retrospective wage review of salaried team members that showed some staff were not “better off overall” as their salaries did not adequately cover overtime and penalty rates.
The Star plans to take a provision of approximately $13m in its upcoming financial results as it begins the process of repaying its staff, plus interest.
“We apologise to any team member impacted by the pxjmtzywayment shortfall and we are committed to doing the right thing by acting transparently,” chief executive Matt Bekier said.
“Our priority is to address this issue and to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
It is the latest in a line of underpayment scandals to crop up at major Australian employers over the past few years, including the Commonwealth Bank, Coles, Woolworths, Wesfarmers, Qantas, and the ABC.
The Star said it had informed the Fair Work Ombudsman and the United Workers Union while also noting that the underpayments amounted to just 0.4 per cent of the $3.3bn it had paid staff over this time.
The company’s share price initially dipped on Monday to a six-day low but has since recovered and was last up 0.3 per cent at $3.56.
