Trolley workers can earn as little as $8 an hour. Picture: Gary Merrin Source: News Limited
SOME shopping centre trolley collectors are being taken for a ride by employers, and the Fair Work Ombudsman isn't having a bar of it.
The workers who weave trolley conga lines through car parks and pick up the carriers from surrounding streets risk being underpaid. Some have worked for as little as $8 an hour, compared to the national minimum wage of $16.87 an hour.
The government agency is now urging supermarket and shopping centre managers to stamp out wage exploitation or face legal action.
A third of the workforce are under 20 years, 40 per cent don't have an education past year 10 and 30 per cent were born overseas.
"These workers encounter barriers to understanding and enforcing their entitlements themselves," FWO Natalie James says.
The FWO has four matters before the courts claiming 71 trolley collectors have collectively been underpaid by almost $500,000. Retailers often outsource collection to trolley services companies that compete heavily on price.
But while retailers don't directly set the terms for subcontractor employees, Ms James says they are still legally responsible.
This is because of "accessorial liability" - a Fair Work Act provision that deems someone other than the employer who is involved in unfair treatment may also be held accountable.
The FWO handed down 38 rulings on this provision last year.
"Just because a company doesn't own the contract doesn't mean it can wash its hands of it," Ms James said in a statement.
Underpayment in the cleaning and security work sectors is also on the FWO's radar.
"These are highly competitive industries ... where the profit margins, particularly on the labour component, are often low," Ms James said.
In the past six years, the FWO has recouped more than $430,000 for 528 underpaid trolley collectors in Australia.
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