Australian toy retailer in court over pay shortfall allegations

SYDNEY: Popular Australian toy retailer Toys 'R' Us is facing more than A$600,000 ($753,000) in penalties for alleged breaches of national workplace laws.

The retailer, which has more than 30 shopfronts across Australia, has become the target of the Fair Work Ombudsman over allegations it failed to promptly compensate some 700 staff who had been underpaid.

Those staff, mostly casual employees and many aged under 18, were employed at Toys 'R' Us stores in New South Wales, Victoria, ACT, South Australia and Western Australia.

"It is alleged that hundreds of the company's workplace agreements were invalid because they failed either the fairness test or no disadvantage test," the office of the Fair Work Ombudsman says.

"The Fair Work Ombudsman claims that insufficient pay rates contained in the invalid workplace agreements resulted in Toys 'R' Us underpaying more than 700 employees for various periods between 2007 and 2009."

In March last year Toys 'R' Us reimbursed those underpaid workers a total of A$445,000, but some had to wait up to nine months to receive their outstanding entitlements, it is alleged.

The Ombudsman has since deemed that Toys 'R' Us failed to reimburse workers within the required timeframe and has lodged documents with the Federal Magistrates Court in Sydney, launching prosecution action.

The Ombudsman's claims include that Toys 'R' Us failed to follow correct procedures when lodging many of its workplace agreements.

- AAP