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Retail Manager Had $261,000 In Wages Stolen Over 11 Years

Retail manager had $261,000 in wages stolen over 11 years

Retail manager Thomas Ruscoe-Jones had $261,000 in wages stolen over 11 years.

The staggering wage theft happened as a result of his employer failing to allow meal breaks in addition to refusing to pay overtime.

Retail manager had $261,000 in wages stolen

Ruscoe-Jones worked for a Brisbane-based motor accessories retailer since 2007 on a 38-hour week salary.

However, his manager insisted he work much longer hours, including evening and weekend shifts.

“They claimed that because I was on salary, they didn’t have to pay it, no overtime at all,” he said.

“We were getting paid for 38 hours, but we were working 47-48 hours a week.”

The employer also did not allow meal or crib breaks as stipulated under the relevant award.

“They just said, ‘you don’t get breaks because there is no one else to cover the position, so you can’t leave the counter because customers might come in,’ and they said, ‘if you want to eat, just eat at your counter’,” he said.

The employer laughed about the underpayments

Ruscoe-Jones went to the Fair Work Ombudsman website and printed out his correct pay and conditions and then showed it to his manager.

“They basically just laughed at me, and said there was nothing I could do about it,” he said.

Worker robbed of $261,00

Miles Heffernan, Director of Litigation at IR Claims, took on the case.

He described it as one of the worst examples of blatant and systematic wage theft.

“When we added up all the hours Thomas worked, in addition to all the overtime and meal breaks he missed out on, we came up with a pretty startling figure,” he said.

“We calculated the underpayments totalled a staggering $261,715.”

Ruscoe-Jones said the amount of the wage theft shocked him.

“I was amazed when I found that out,” he said.  

“I never realised it was that much that I was getting jipped on.”

Court action convinced employer to pay up

IR Claims instructed Fair Work Employment Lawyers to commence legal action in the Federal Circuit Court to recover Ruscoe-Jones’ wages.

The company finally admitted to the wage theft as a result.

It admitted to failing to pay overtime in addition to failing to provide proper meal breaks.

It also admitted to not keeping accurate time and wage records as required by law.

During pre-trial negotiations, the company agreed to pay Ruscoe-Jones $50,000.

“I was really happy with the result in the end, but it was really stressful, it took a lot of time and a lot of stress to get there,” he said.

Ruscoe-Jones story formed part of IR Claims submission to the 2018 Queensland wage theft inquiry.


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