LUSH Australia completes payroll remediation project

In July 2018 we disclosed to the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman that we had discovered serious payroll system errors dating back to the introduction of Modern Awards in 2010, which had resulted in the underpayment of staff employed in both our Manufacturing and Retail businesses.

An extensive payroll remediation project has taken place to correct these errors, and with the assistance of external payroll experts who specialise in managing projects of this nature, we can confirm that the work is now complete. The complex nature of the issues involved meant that the project has taken considerably longer than originally envisaged but it was important to ensure that the process was completed accurately.  Including interest and superannuation, a total of $4.4 million has been paid to the 3,130 present and past employees who were identified as affected.

Since the initial announcement, we have invested significantly in new payroll systems and processes to ensure this cannot happen again. This includes a commitment to our employees and the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman to conduct extensive annual audits of our systems to ensure accuracy and compliance is maintained going forward.

We hold our values dear and would never knowingly underpay, cheat or avoid our responsibilities and we regret that these mistakes and oversights happened. We know this has been a difficult experience for all those concerned and we would therefore like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our staff for their patience and understanding whilst the long process of wage recalculation took place.  

We are immensely proud of our staff who put their heart and souls into LUSH. They, along with our customers, drive our business and make it the vibrant place it is. We sincerely apologise for letting them down. 

If you believe that you may have been affected by this issue and have not been contacted by LUSH or if you know somebody who worked for LUSH in that time, please email staffbackpay@lush.com.au You can also contact us by telephone by calling +61 2 9784 8500 and select option 2.