Australia’s Crown Resorts has revealed it paid a total of AU$470,000 (US$309,400) in remediated payments to former staff as a result of unintentional errors in long service leave calculations.
The errors impacted around 300 former team members.
In a statement, Crown said the payment of AU$469,999.24 follows ongoing correspondence since 2022 with the Wage Inspectorate Victoria (WIV) and was made immediately in consultation with the WIV once it became aware of the matter.
The company also contacted impacted former team members to apologize and voluntarily included an extra 10% to the payments, it explained.
“Crown has reviewed its payroll processes and enhanced its compliance frameworks as part of this process and continues to work openly and constructively with the WIV on this matter and its ongoing compliance,” it said.
Crown earlier this month announced a narrowed AU$164.8 million (US$111 million) loss for the 12 months to 30 June 2024, mainly on cost-cutting measures, after paying out AU$700 million in fines in recent years for historical compliance failures uncovered during inquiries in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia – home to Crown Sydney, Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth respectively.
Those inquiries also found the company unsuitable to hold casino licenses for all three properties due to systemic issues around money laundering controls, responsible gambling, tax payments and compliance.
However, Crown has since returned to suitability in NSW, home of Crown Sydney, and Victoria, home of Crown Melbourne, following a comprehensive transformation process led by CEO Ciarán Carruthers.
Carruthers recently announced that he will be departing the company at year’s end, replaced by interim David Tsai as Interim CEO.