Lush Cosmetics Australia has announced a national back-payment scheme to repay workers due to a significant payroll systems error.
The unintentional underpayments affect a very high number of current and former staff, dating back to the introduction of the Modern Awards in 2010.
The company will hold a press conference later today to detail the back-payment scheme, and outline the error, how it was discovered and how it will be rectified going forward.
It is not yet known the extent of the payment error, or the impact the discovery will have on staff morale at the cosmetic retailer’s 30+ locations. Lush has long been a champion of workers rights, going so far as to refuse to alter penalty rates payable to its workers after the Fair Work Commission regulated a reduction covered under the General Retail and Industry Award 2010; the award employees of Lush are paid under.
The company won the Customer Experience Innovation of the Year for Large Businesses Award at the 2018 Retailer Awards.
“As we’ve become more known for our values and ethics, we find that staff were attracted to us because they too share concerns about these things,” Lush co-director Peta Granger told Inside Retail in an interview in 2016. “And that in turn transfers to your shop floor as really good customers service, because staff genuinely care about getting it right for their consumers.”
