(Reuters) – Coles Group The country’s industrial affairs watchdog is suing Australia’s 2nd-largest grocery chain (OTC) for underpaying employees over three years. Separate announcements were made by both parties on Thursday.

Fair Work Ombudsman FWO stated that https:// Coles was underpaying 7,812 workers by A$115.2 Million ($81.99M) between January 2017 to March 2020. This is in addition to a host of other allegations.

Insufficient annual wages to pay for overtime worked by workers, as well as “significantly under-paid” amounts due to the company’s remediation scheme among other reasons led the company into underpayments.

The FWO stated that more than A$108million was the remaining amount due to the remediation program. They also claimed that overtime time records were not kept by the company.

Coles was being sued by the FWO in Federal Court. He had been accused of multiple breaches of workplace laws. Coles could face penalties up to A$63,000 each.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker stated that businesses cannot pay annual salaries and then forget about their employees.

Coles was under watchdog since February 2020, when inquiries into its pay arrangements for salaried employees began. Coles said that they were reviewing the proceeding.

The FWO had also sued the country’s biggest grocer Woolworths Group https://reut.rs/3IcqLLZ and the largest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:) https://reut.rs/3xMUmql (CBA.AX) for staff underpayments, underlining it as a persistent issue among businesses of all sizes, across different industries.

($1 = 1.4051 Australian dollars)