"Fashion giant guilty of hundreds of underpayment offences"

Australia’s largest specialty fashion retail group has pleaded guilty to 324 offences of underpaying long service leave as the NSW government warns it will crack down on compliance ahead of a massive expansion of entitlements to thousands of workers.

Mosaic Brands Limited, which has 1110 stores nationally including Millers, Rivers, Katies, Rockmans, and Noni B, pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court to underpaying 223 of its workers.

It is the largest number of offences prosecuted simultaneously in NSW for long service leave underpayments, and comes ahead of a planned expansion of leave entitlements through a portable scheme for gig, disability, home care and other vulnerable on-demand workers...

The prosecution saw Mosaic Brands issued with a $29,000 fine on May 19 – a record in NSW for underpaying long service leave entitlements – with the court finding that the offences were too serious and too widespread for there to be no penalty imposed.

The court found that while the underpayments were not deliberate, they occurred due to a lack of care and diligence relating to the retail group’s payroll obligations...

A spokesman for Mosaic Brands said: “The court was clear in highlighting what happened was not deliberate, and that the company cooperated fully to swiftly rectify the issue.”