Woolworths is asking former staff to come forward after discovering issues to do with pay and leave entitlement dating back to 2015.

The company has now made contact with about 5000 former or current salaried store team members who have had roles that may have been affected.

In a statement, Woolworths said it found the two potential issues in early 2022 as part of a review of its work practices.

The issues include instances where salaried store team members may have worked additional hours without being paid correctly, and instances where salaried store team members may have worked on days recorded as annual leave.

The supermarket company approached First Union when it became aware of the issue last year, asking for the union’s help.

Union chief executive Bill Bradford says it’s taken the company quite some time to put things in place.

“There’s some difficulties in tracking those who may be affected so we’ve sent stuff out to our members as well encouraging anyone who thinks they may have been affected in that way to come forward and claim what they’re owed,” Bradford said.

“It is a disgrace.”

Woolworths said it found the two potential issues in early 2022 as part of a review of its work practices. Photo / Jesse Wood 

Bradford credits the company for approaching the union when it discovered the issue and says it’s the first time he can think of a company coming forward to do something about it.

“We hear a lot about shoplifting and other retail theft, but there’s a huge problem with [employees being underpaid] throughout the country. It’s really, really common.”

Woolworths has also contacted the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) for help with its remediation approach.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Labour Inspectorate says it has been working with Woolworths over the employment issues since 2019.

MBIE’s Head of Compliance and Enforcement Simon Humphries said: “Woolworths has proactively engaged with the Labour Inspectorate throughout this process. It has shown commitment to ensuring the issues are remediated and the underlying processes and behaviours rectified so the issues do not occur again in future.”

Woolworths is not yet sure how much fixing these issues will cost the company.

In a statement, it said, “As we’re just starting this process, there isn’t enough information available for us to determine exactly which team members or stores may have been impacted and to what extent. This also means we aren’t yet in a position to determine the remediation payments or leave entitlements that need to be corrected.”

The company says most of its 22,000 team members are not salaried and it expects a limited number of the total team to have been affected by these issues.

It also says it’s “committed to ensuring that these issues do not occur again” and expects any remediation owed to be paid out from the middle of this year.