Crown Resorts In More Trouble As Reports Emerge Of Wage Theft

Crown Resorts has suffered massive damage to its reputation in the last few months as gaming regulators in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia have investigated the casino operator for serious violations.

Crown Resorts has found itself in further trouble after reports emerged that the Australian casino operator had underpaid hundreds of its employees deliberately.

Reports emerged that Crown Resorts had committed wage theft across multiple locations in Australia including at Crown Melbourne which is the biggest single location employer in Victoria. Crown Resorts reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman once these reports emerged who will launch an investigation into the matter.

Sky News Australia

These reports suggest that millions of dollars were not paid to Crown Resort employees deliberately. These wager theft allegations also include employees at Crown Resort’s popular restaurants which include the Rockpool Bar & Grill and Dinner by Heston. If it’s any comfort to Crown Resorts, there have been a number of other top brands in Australia that have been accused of Wage Theft.

Some of these brands include McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and Coles.

Crown Resorts Says Only Small Percentage Impacted

Crown Resorts released a statement which said that it acknowledged media reports about Wage Theft and has initiated a detailed assessment to see if there was widespread underpayment across its wage force. Crown Resorts said that this underpayment of wages did not apply to the majority of its workforce as only a small section was impacted.

Dario Mujkic, who is the casino director for the United Workers Union’s agreed with Crown Resort’s statement and claimed that workers who had union agreements would not be impacted by wage theft. A small section of workers who did not have union agreements are most likely the ones who have been given a raw deal.

Victoria has already passed a Wage Theft bill that makes it a criminal offense for a company to deliberately cheat their employees out of their due wages. The bill is expected to come into being within the next few months. A Federal government bill regarding wage theft has also been introduced in the lower house but might struggle to clear the Senate.

Whether Crown Resorts did it deliberately or whether the impacted employees were just a few, this is another big blow to Crown Resorts who is facing the prospect of having its casino license stripped in New South Wales and Victoria.