The underpayment of wages was identified through a six-year retrospective wage review of salaried team members, with the annual salary of certain team members “not insufficient” in terms of their award entitlements such as overtime and penalty rates.

The Star plans to take a provision of AU$13m in its 1H FY2020 accounts for the expected cost of remediation, which includes back payments, interest and superannuation contributions.

The company noted that it has informed the Fair Work Ombudsman and the United Workers Union of its decision, adding that it has “improved its processes, systems and training and has a plan in place to ensure salaried team members’ pay is correct moving forward.”

The Star MD & CEO Matt Bekier commented: “We apologise to any team member impacted by the payment shortfall and we are committed to doing the right thing by acting transparently. Our priority is to address this issue and to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

The Star also provided a 1H FY2020 earnings update, with the group noting that such earnings have been “materially impacted by COVID-19 related property shutdowns, operating restrictions and border closures.”

The operator will release its financial results for the period on 17 February 2022, but noted that it expects to report normalised EBITDA of AU$28-AU$30m, and a normalised net loss of AU$73-AU$75m.

“The prevalence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 impacted trading results in December and January, with a peak in mid-January,” a statement from The Star read. “This impact has subsequently eased and trading continues to progressively improve.”