23 June 2023

Casino and resort operators Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth have back-paid employees more than $1.2 million, including superannuation, interest and an additional gratuity payment, and signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Crown Resorts, the Crown Group’s parent company, self-reported underpayments to the FWO in March 2020, in response to a letter from Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker that urged Australia’s top 100 ASX-listed companies to prioritise payroll compliance.

These self-reported underpayments related to an audit Crown had conducted prior to receiving the letter from Ms Parker, which identified potential underpayments by Crown Melbourne Limited (Crown Melbourne) and Burswood Resort (Management) Limited (Crown Perth).

Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth operate a casino and resort in Southbank, Melbourne, and Burswood, Perth, respectively.

Underpayments were caused by Crown incorrectly identifying some of its employees as award-free, thereby underpaying them by failing to meet its obligations under four different awards that actually applied; paying annualised salaries that were too low to meet underlying award obligations; and failing to keep all employee records.

Employees were underpaid entitlements including penalty rates, minimum hourly rates, overtime, and paid leave rates.

As a result, between July 2014 and June 2020, Crown underpaid 200 current and former employees about $1.025 million, excluding superannuation, interest and gratuity.

The company has fully remediated more than $1.2 million including superannuation, plus an additional 10 per cent made up of interest and gratuity payment, to the 192 current and former employees it could find. The EU requires back-payments to the other eight former employees to be made within 180 days.

Under the EU, in addition to back-paying the remaining eight impacted employees, Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth must make a combined $350,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund.

More than $567,000 in back-payments have been made to 102 workers in Melbourne, with individual back-payments ranging from $22 to $66,714. Crown Melbourne is still attempting to locate the remaining eight workers who have yet to receive backpay.

In Perth, all workers have been back-paid, with payments of more than $659,000 in back-payments made to 90 workers, ranging from $5 to $55,192.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said an EU was appropriate as Crown had cooperated with the FWO’s investigation and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying underpayments.

“Under the EU, Crown has committed to implementing stringent measures to ensure all its current and future workers are paid correctly. These measures include commissioning, at its own cost, two independent annual audits to check its compliance with workplace laws,” Ms Parker said.

“As I called out to the ASX top 100 in early 2020 and have said consistently ever since – employers need to place a high priority on their workplace obligations. Crown’s failures to apply relevant awards to some of its employees and to ensure annual salaries met all minimum entitlements for hours worked led to long-running underpayments of its staff, and a larger remediation bill,” Ms Parker said.

“All employers need to invest the time and resources to ensure they are meeting all lawful entitlements.”

Underpaid employees were engaged full-time, part-time and casually as hairdressers, beauty therapists, massage therapists, food and beverage supervisors, chefs, concierges, receptionists, administrative assistants and in other roles at the Melbourne and Perth resorts respectively.

The EU also requires Crown to write to all underpaid employees to notify them of the commencement of the EU; publish notices in two newspapers, on its website, on its Facebook page and in its workplaces about its contraventions; and establish a telephone hotline plus a dedicated email account for all employees who worked during the relevant period to make enquiries.

Employers and employees can visit www.fairwork.gov.au or call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 for free advice and assistance.