In October 2019, Woolworths Group announced that it had commenced an in-depth review of the remuneration paid to award-covered salaried store team members, after finding that some salaried store team members working in Woolworths Supermarkets stores were not paid their full entitlements under the General Retail Industry Award 2010 (GRIA).
As a business we pride ourselves on putting our team first and in this case we let them down. We unreservedly apologise for this and remain committed to making it right as quickly as we possibly can.
We have completed our review and made back payments to affected salaried store team members in our Supermarkets, Metro, BIG W and previously Woolworths Group-operated BWS and Dan Murphy’s stores for a 6 year period from September 2013 to September 2019.
We have now reviewed the records available to us from mid-2013 back to the commencement of the GRIA in January 2010. We have found that over this period (now more than 8 years ago), we no longer have sufficient records (electronic or paper-based) of rosters and timesheets for individual salaried team members. Without those records, it is not possible to determine whether individual salaried team members were underpaid against the requirements of the GRIA during this period.
With this in mind, we have decided to make an ex-gratia payment of $2,500 plus superannuation to every current or former GRIA-covered salaried store team member employed for a period of six months or more, in any of the Woolworths Supermarkets, Metro and BIG W, and previously Woolworths Group-operated Dan Murphy’s and BWS businesses in the period from 1 January 2010 to 8 September 2013.
We will contact each of our current team members who are eligible to receive an ex-gratia payment directly and we will be in a position to process these payments before the end of 2021. Former team members will be contacted directly from December 2021 through to January 2022. If you don't hear from us by the end of January 2022, please email us at salariedteampayreview@woolworths.com.au.
Since announcing the Salaried Team Pay Review in October 2019, we have made back payments to affected salaried store team members totalling approximately $370 million, including interest and superannuation. We are committed to doing the right thing by our team members, customers and communities. We thank our salaried store team members for their ongoing patience as we work through this process.
As part of the Salaried Team Pay Review, we will check the salaries paid to all of our current and former salaried store team members against the entitlements required to be paid under the GRIA for their actual hours of work, as far back as this issue may have been occuring, so long as all of the necessary records are available to us. Therefore, we will write to any current or former salaried store team member who is entitled to a back payment as a result of our review.
In the meantime, we encourage former salaried store team members to register their contact details by clicking on the link here or by sending an email to the STPR Team at salariedteampayreview@woolworths.com.au. If you don’t register your details, we will use your last known email address (or other contact details) to try to reach you in the first instance.
