RETAIL workers at specialist food and liquor businesses in the ACT and New South Wales have been back-paid more than $180,000 in wages after a Fair Work Ombudsman campaign. 

The campaign saw 269 businesses audited; with 114 found to be in breach of workplace laws.

Of those in breach, 71 had underpaid staff, 26 had record-keeping breaches only and 17 had both. As a result 77 businesses have back-paid 247 employees $180,441.

Businesses in Canberra, Sydney, Albury, Batemans Bay, Griffith, Merimbula, Newcastle and Wollongong were found to have underpaid workers with underpayments at individual businesses ranging from under $16 to more than $13,000 for five workers at a Sydney fishmonger.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said that it was disappointing that so many breaches related to underpayments, but employers were willing to fix their mistakes, back-pay their employees and put processes in place to ensure compliance in the future.

“A key part of the role of the Fair Work Ombudsman is to educate and help businesses, particularly those small businesses which don’t have the benefit of in-house specialist HR staff, about how to comply with workplace laws, and that’s what we did throughout this campaign – we worked with these employers to help them get it right,” she said.