Hamilton Island operators reimburse resort staff $28 million in underpaid wages

The companies responsible for the operation of Queensland’s Hamilton Island have back-paid staff more than $28.1 million and have signed an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The move follows Hamilton Island Enterprises Limited (HIE) having underpaid more than 2,000 staff over a period of eight years, revealed by an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The investigation, which commenced in 2020, found that 2152 current and former staff on the island were underpaid between December 2014 and December 2022.

To date, HIE have back-paid a total of $28.1 million to the affected staff while a further $250,984 in wages and $10,954 in superannuation is still to be paid for unclaimed sums for 32 employees who have yet to be identified.

The underpayments were the result of the HIE paying many full-time employees annual salaries that did not take into account penalty rates associated with overtime and shiftwork.

The most common entitlements underpaid included overtime rates, weekend and public holiday penalty rates, broken-shift allowances and annual leave loading.

The large majority of the underpaid staff worked across the range of businesses HIE operates on Hamilton Island, with a smaller number employed by HIE’s wholly owned subsidiary Hamilton Island Shared Services Pty Ltd (HISS) at HIE’s corporate headquarters in Sydney.

Most underpaid workers were covered by the Hospitality Industry (General) Awards 2010 and 2020, with others covered by more than 20 different Awards.

Some common roles of underpaid workers included food and beverage supervisors, assistant restaurant managers, chefs, front office employees, clerical employees, housekeeping employees, handymen and concierges.

Ombudsman Anna Booth said the companies were committed to “ensuring future compliance’’ following the investigation, explaining “under the enforceable undertaking, the companies have committed to rectifying all underpayments they identify in full, plus interest and superannuation, and implementing stringent measures to ensure all staff are paid correctly in future.

“Businesses paying annual salaries cannot take a ‘set-and-forget’ approach to paying their workers.

“Employers must ensure wages being paid are sufficient to cover all minimum lawful entitlements for the hours their employees are actually working.”

HIE operates a range of accommodation businesses on Hamilton Island, as well as ancillary businesses including the marina, airport, retail stores, restaurants, and leisure and recreation facilities. HIE is also responsible for the public utility services on Hamilton Island and the provision of some emergency services.

HISS provides support services to HIE for finance, bookings, sales and marketing.

Images: The east side of Hamilton Island (top) and a 2017 imahe promoting Hamilton Island's recruitment (below).