Boujie department store David Jones and affiliates the Country Road Group (CRG) have stepped out as the latest retailers to underpay staff, and all I can say is yikes, chief.
The companies now owe a grand total of $3.7 million to over 7000 staff members. The parent company of these brands, South African retail group Woolworths Holdings (not associated with Woolies), announced on Friday that it had undertaken an audit of its payments systems after payment errors in late 2019.
The results of the audit showed there were $1.35 million in underpayments at David Jones, and a $2.36 million unpaid wage bill at CRG. Retail brands under Country Road include Trenery, Mimco, Witchery, Politix and of course, Country Road.
Interim Chief Executive Ian Moir has apologised for the incident.
“Our team members should expect to be paid correctly. We deeply regret this has not occurred and apologise unreservedly to our team,” he said. “We are now focussed on ensuring our team members are paid the money owing to them as quickly as possible.”
Staff of David Jones and CRG have now been notified of the issues, and repayments plus interest are planned to be made by mid-October.
“We’ve now completed a thorough review of systems and processes and taken the necessary steps across the group to ensure these errors cannot be repeated,” said Chief Executive Officer of CRG Scott Fyfe.
David Jones and Country Road Group employees have been notified of the issues, with repayments plus interest expected to be made by mid-October.
