Employees for mega fashion retailer The Iconic has recently revealed the company had paid back around $1 million in underpaid wages.
The Iconic self-reported the missing wages to the Fair Work Ombudsman in March 2022. When the company did an external and external audit of its accounting system, payroll errors were uncovered.
It found that approximately 800 casual staff between 2013 and 2020 were underpaid hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars.
The company has since paid back 95 per cent of the $1.38 million owned with both interest and super. There are some underpaid workers The Iconic has not been able to contact. They’ll be able to access the money they’re owed through the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue scheme if they decide to.
“I want to apologise to everyone that this has happened — it is unacceptable and we are very disappointed,” CEO Erica Berchtold told staff in an email from March 1, 2022.
“We’ve taken responsibility for our mistake and have self-reported it to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
“We are also working with independent experts and investing significantly in our [human resources] information and payroll processes and systems to ensure this does not happen again.”
