Some staff working at Country Road Group’s Country Road, Trenery, Witchery and Mimco were also underpaid.
The companies reported the underpayment to the Fair Work Ombudsman in September 2020.
Politix was found to have underpaid about 850 employees, totalling $2.06 million in wages, plus $45,000 in superannuation, between November 2016 and September 2020.
David Jones underpaid about 2800 employees by about $480,000 in wages, plus $1.4 million in superannuation for 6,100 employees between April 2014 and September 2020.
The average underpayments were $170 for David Jones and $2,353 for Politix.
“Under their enforceable undertakings, David Jones and Politix have committed to implementing stringent measures to improve compliance and protect the rights of their employees,” said Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker.
“These measures include commissioning, at the companies’ own cost, independent annual audits to check their compliance with workplace laws over the next two years.”
The two companies must also pay a combined $300,000 in contrition payments.
A fault in the manual payroll processes, payroll system set-up errors and annual salaries caused the underpayments.
