Australian gambling company Star Entertainment must pay around AUD$13 million (€8.1 million) in withheld pay to 2200 employees after discovering that it had underpaid staff from 2016 onwards.
In an update released via its website, the company informed investors that it had immediately brought the discrepancy in pay to the attention of both regulators and unions.
The discovery had been made during a retrospective wage review of salaried staff carried out by auditors. According to the update, the review showed that those staff members were not ‘better off overall’ as their basic salaries did not cover any unpaid overtime they put in on the job.
The update goes on to explain that the company will begin to repay staff immediately for any losses suffered plus interest. Star Entertainment plans to take the hit on its upcoming financial results which could see first half losses jump to somewhere in the region of AUD$73 — $75 million (€45.5 — €46.6 million).
In the update, Chief Executive Matt Bekier said:
“We apologise to any team member impacted by the payment shortfall and we are committed to doing the right thing by acting transparently. Our priority is to address this issue and to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Star Entertainment, which is valued at AUD$3.4 billion (€2.1 billion), runs casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast and is currently under investigation by financial regulators following allegations of money laundering throughout its gambling business.
Image credit: llee_wu / CC BY-ND 2.0
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.