Crown avoids court after falsely classifying staff “award free”

Crown’s decision to classify staff as “award free” has come back to bite the group, after the Commonwealth ordered it to pay $350,000 in fines.

The casino and resorts giant disclosed its failures to the Fair Work Ombudsman, which included underpaying 200 chefs, concierges, receptionists, administrative assistants, hairdressers, beauty and massage therapists in line with minimum award rates, overtime, leave and penalty rates.

Underpayments totalled $1.2 million over six years.

In some consolation for Crown, the bill is only half the $2.1 million it estimated it would be required to pay back in 2021.

The bill includes $1.03 million in wages, $107,212 in superannuation and an extra 10 per cent for interest and gratuity.

As Crown had fully co-operated with the investigation, Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said an enforceable undertaking was more appropriate than court action.

“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,” Parker said. 

“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.

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

It was found Crown failed to apply four separate awards and paid staff salaries that were too low to cover the award. Timesheets were also missed.

In lieu of its failings, it paid back $567,000 to 102 workers in Melbourne and $659,000 to 90 workers in Perth. Eight former employees are still to be paid.

Crown will now introduce an internal reconciliation process to put staff minds at ease that they are correctly paid. It will undergo two external audits to check workplace compliance in 2024 and 2025.

Jonathan Jackson, 27^th June 2023