Did Lush do the wrong thing or do companies have unqualified payroll staff?
Earlier this month, Lush Cosmetics admitted it underpaid staff by $2 million, which could affect 5,000 employees.
Lush apologised for the errors, attributing them to a manual payroll system which was not sophisticated enough to interpret "intricate elements" of the Retail and Manufacturing awards.
This included paying incorrect rates and underpaying staff when they did not have two consecutive days off, didn’t have a minimum of 12 hours break between shifts, worked more than 11 hours in one day, and when part timers worked outside their contracted hours of work.
Australian Payroll Association CEO Tracy Angwin said she is not surprised to see another major company underpaying its staff.
Angwin said payroll personnel in companies are not qualified with payroll qualifications, are under supervised and have little or no knowledge of payroll legislation and no external support to keep them up to date.
“Things have to change," Angwin said. “This is not fair on Australian employees and employers need to take responsibility for their payroll departments, which they are not doing.
“This includes ensuring they employ qualified payroll staff, provide them access to regular payroll training to keep them updated on all payroll related changes and regularly reviewing their payroll processes and technology to ensure they are delivering a compliant payroll function.”