Crown pays out $500k for unpaid long service leave

Crown has had to fork out more than $500,000 to Victorian workers and has been formally warned by Wage Inspectorate Victoria after an investigation found that hundreds of staff were underpaid their long service leave entitlements.

An investigation by Wage Inspectorate Victoria, which enforces the state’s long service leave laws, has uncovered that 309 former employees of Crown had been underpaid their long service leave entitlement when their employment ended, between November 2018 and December 2022.

According to Victoria’s Long Service Leave Act 2018, long service leave is to be provided to employees who have worked continuously with one employer for at least seven years.

Crown subsequently made remuneration payments totalling $469,999, plus interest and a voluntary 10 per cent loading as a contrition payment, bringing the total amount paid to workers to over $500,000, the inspectorate noted in a statement.

Crown provided the Wage Inspectorate with information about additional measures it has implemented to ensure future compliance with Victoria’s long service leave law, it added.

The decision to issue formal warnings was made in line with the Wage Inspectorate’s Compliance and Enforcement Policy.

Wage Inspectorate Victoria commissioner Robert Hortle said the investigation had “ensured over $500,000 is in the pockets of Victorians, where it belongs and where it will make a significant difference to their lives”.

“The Wage Inspectorate was set up to ensure Victorians received their hard-earned entitlements, and today’s outcome shows that’s what we continue to do,” Hortle said.

“Some of Australia’s biggest companies have fallen foul of long service leave laws, including Crown, Commonwealth Bank, Optus, Woolworths, and Coles, so boardrooms across the nation should be asking questions about their own long service leave obligations and governance.”

In its statement, Crown noted it “has reviewed its payroll processes and enhanced its compliance frameworks as part of this process and continues to work openly and constructively with the WIV on this matter and its ongoing compliance”.