Mecca, a beauty retailer, has sent letters to approximately 1600 past and present employees after conducting an audit on their payroll between July 2016 and July 2022.
The audit uncovered that staff were owed a total of roughly $560,000. The company disclosed that an independent historical payroll review was commissioned while transitioning from an enterprise agreement to the General Retail Industry Award.
It was discovered that some shifts did not conform to state-based regulations or meet minimum shift length requirements, resulting in 17.5% of Mecca staff being owed back-payments.
The median amount owed to each staff member was $153, totalling over $560,000 during the six-year period of review. Mecca’s chief people officer, Vanessa Freeman, expressed an apology to those affected and assured them that their payments would be processed soon.
The company also reported that it had intentionally paid $74 million more than required in entitlements across its workforce. Mecca has taken measures to prevent future issues, including self-reporting the problem to the Fair Work Ombudsman and implementing new processes and systems to ensure compliance with legal requirements.
The payments, which include interest calculated on a compounding basis and 10.5% superannuation, will be made on April 19.
Any payments that are below $50 will be rounded up automatically, and employees have been requested to confirm their current details.