OMBUDSMAN – AUSTRALIA

Telcos get slower at resolving problems

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Original article by Joseph Lam
The Australian – Page: 17 : 2-Oct-24

Data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman shows that it received 56,718 complaints about telcos in the 2023-24 financial year, which is 14.6 per cent lower than previously. Mobile services accounted for about 43.5 per cent of complaints, while 39.4 per cent of complaints concerned internet services. Meanwhile, about 63 per cent of complaints were made by customers whose telco had failed to address issues in a timely manner or had taken no action at all. Telstra attracted 27.1 per cent of complaints, compared with 23.5 per cent for Optus.

CORPORATES
TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY OMBUDSMAN LIMITED, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD

Optus complaints up nearly 40pc after data hack

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Original article by Joseph Lam
The Australian – Page: 16 : 8-Feb-23

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s report for the December quarter shows that it received 17,903 complaints during the period, which is 9.9 per cent higher than the September quarter. Complaints about Optus rose by 39.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, in the wake of the data breach that affected some 11 million customers. The TIO received a total of 6,346 complaints against Optus, which accounted for 36 per cent of all complaints against the nation’s 10 biggest telcos. Telstra received the most complaints overall (6,819); however, this was lower than the previous quarter.

CORPORATES
SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD, TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY OMBUDSMAN LIMITED, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS

Universities on workplace watchdog’s wage theft priority list

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Original article by Angus Thompson
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 22-Jun-22

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker says wage underpayment has become a systemic issue in Australia’s tertiary education sector. The FWO is investigating 11 of the nation’s universities for potentially underpaying their staff. Parker says the high level of casual staff at universities is also a major concern. The National Tertiary Education Union’s president Alison Barnes says wage theft in universities is "out of control". Wage theft in the higher education sector will be one of the FWO’s priorities in 2022-23, along with the fast food, hospitality and agricultural industries.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, NATIONAL TERTIARY EDUCATION INDUSTRY UNION

Australian social services department underpaid dozens of staff $400,000 over five years

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Original article by Luke Henriques-Gomes
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 22-Dec-21

Documents released under freedom of information laws, show that a key federal government agency has admitted to underpaying its staff. The Department of Social Services self-reported the underpayments totalling more than $400,000 to the Fair Work Ombudsman. The Community & Public Sector Union contends that the Department had been aware of the underpayments in 2017 and had failed to address the issue until it was issued with a compliance notice by the FWO in July 2021. A total of 68 current and former employees of the Department’s communications services branch were affected by the underpayments.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR UNION

WHSmith admits underpaying 1500 workers by $2.2 million

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: Online : 6-Nov-20

WHSmith Australia has agreed to an enforceable undertaking after admitting that its employees had been underpaid some $2.2m between October 2013 and April 2019. The underpayment affected about 1,500 employees of the retailer, which has provided backpay totalling $2.257m to past and present staff. The company, which reported the underpayment to the Fair Work Ombudsman, will also make a ‘contrition payment’ of $50,000.

CORPORATES
WH SMITH AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN

Fair Work flags reprieve on underpayment

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 13-Jul-20

Restaurants, cafes and horticulture are among the sectors that the Fair Work Ombudsman tends to focus upon regarding wage underpayments. However, the FWO notes that businesses in these sectors are likely to be under severe financial stress because of COVID-19. As a result, it is prepared to take no legal action against businesses in these circumstances as well as considering the reduction of ‘contrition payments’, provided that their non-compliance was not "egregious or deliberate". The FWO will make large companies its 2020-21 focus so far as underpayments are concerned.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

‘Admission is not absolution’: FWO warns Woolies after $300m wage theft revelations

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Original article by
The New Daily – Page: Online : 31-Oct-19

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci has apologised after the retail giant became the latest company to be embroiled in the wage underpayment scandal. Woolworths has advised that it faces remediation costs of up to $300m after revealing that some 5,700 employees across its supermarkets and Metro stores have been underpaid, potentially since 2010. Woolworths will also review its non-grocery businesses, such as Big W and Dan Murphy’s. Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker says the size of a company’s underpayment will be taken into consideration when the FWO considers penalties in the future.

CORPORATES
WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, WOOLWORTHS SUPERMARKETS, BIG W DISCOUNT STORES, DAN MURPHY’S, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, SUPER RETAIL GROUP LIMITED – ASX SUL, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN

Perry’s Rockpool chain cheated its staff out of $10m

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Original article by Tessa Akerman
The Australian – Page: 3 : 25-Oct-19

Maurice Blackburn’s principal lawyer Josh Bornstein has described allegations that Rockpool Dining Group underpaid its staff as one of the "most egregious cases of wage theft" in Australian history. The law firm has submitted a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman on behalf of the Hospo Voice union; amongst other things, it alleges that the restaurant group altered employees’ timesheets to show that they worked for just 38 hours a week, when some in fact are said to have worked for up to 100 hours a week. Bornstein says the FWO should seek the maximum penalty against Rockpool, given that it has acknowledged that the penalty against celebrity chef George Calombari for wage underpayment was too light.

CORPORATES
ROCKPOOL DINING GROUP, MAURICE BLACKBURN PTY LTD, HOSPO VOICE, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, MADE ESTABLISHMENT PTY LTD

Telcos cop fewer complaints but take longer to solve them

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Original article by Supratim Adhikari
The Australian – Page: 20 : 25-Sep-19

Data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman shows that it received 132,387 complaints about telephone and internet services in 2018-19, which is 21.1 per cent lower than previously. The figures also show that just 47 per cent of escalated complaints were not resolved within 60 days, compared with 77 per cent in 2017-18. Meanwhile, 32.6 per cent of complaints received by the TIO were about fixed-line broadband services, while 30.3 per cent concerned mobile phone services.

CORPORATES
TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY OMBUDSMAN LIMITED, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS

Ombudsman warning over unfair clauses

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 21 : 6-Sep-19

Small business ombudsman Kate Cornell suggests that around 50 per cent of all ‘standard form contracts’ offered to small businesses by service providers outside the banking sector could contain clauses that deemed to be unfair. Carnell says that some of the worst offenders in this regard include companies in the advertising and rubbish removal sectors. She has called on companies that may have unfair terms in their contracts to remove them, as to avoid being sued. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and the Bank of Queensland are being sued by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN SMALL BUSINESS AND FAMILY ENTERPRISE OMBUDSMAN, BENDIGO AND ADELAIDE BANK LIMITED – ASX BEN, BANK OF QUEENSLAND LIMITED – ASX BOQ, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION