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But Woolworths said some employees were authorised to work up to 45 hours a week, and they were not required to do overtime beyond that.
Woolworths has already repaid $300 million to managers who were not properly paid entitlements that were due to them. Source: AAP / Con Chronis
Coles argued managers had autonomy over their hours, and the estimates of working hours and days were overestimated by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The woman, whose pay was docked for Coles-branded clothing, was also entitled to a clothing and laundry allowance.
‘Unacceptably complex’
The case against Coles involved 42 managers, some of whom were employed in multiple shops, from 2017 to 2020.
Coles failed to operate an overtime system for managers and its clocking records were unreliable, justice Nye Perram said. Source: AAP / Con Chronis
“Whilst I would not wish to [be] definitive about how litigation of this kind might be handled in the future, I am confident that they should not be handled the way these four cases were,” Perram said. “This should not be done again.”
He will conduct a case management hearing in October to determine the next steps and compensation for the affected 27,700 employees.
