2 weeks ago
3
Seven is facing a potential class action lawsuit, with firm Adero Law about to make a public call-out to the network’s staff over pay issues and the media union investigating a range of wage grievances.
The legal firm plans to publish a request for expressions of interest on Wednesday afternoon after being approached by several Seven staff members.
Seven Network is facing an underpayment lawsuit.Credit: Darrian Traynor
The callout comes a week after the media union, the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, told staff it was looking into widespread issues relating to grading, hours, pay and personal margins at Seven.
Adero has already been contacted by more than 20 current and former staff.
“Staff are highly motivated, which indicates people are pretty cranky,” said one person familiar with the situation who was not authorised to speak publicly.
The key issues Adero has been contacted about also to relate to how staff pay is graded, how personal pay margins are assigned on top of those grades, and how hours and overtime are tallied.
“Management have a poor record of keeping track of hours worked and leave taken,” the person said. “There’s no central management. Often it’s scribbled in a book or on an Excel sheet.”
The issues raised also include pay progression. Most pay is determined with a personal margin on top of a Level 5 grading, one of the lowest grades without being a cadet journalist. Some staff have reported being kept on the same grade for as many as 10 years.
These concerns have been raised by people working as journalists, producers, camera operators and production crew.
Loading
The issues have arisen months after Seven volunteered “good news” to staff over Zoom meetings in April, informing them of historical underpayments after discovering some staff were owed upwards of $25,000 each. One Seven staffer, speaking anonymously out of fear of retribution, said some people with long tenure at the Kerry Stokes-controlled news network may be owed amounts far larger than what Seven had reported.
While the issue in April, which Seven discovered, covered as few as 30 staff, the staffer said this grading issue was likely to include a far larger swathe of Seven’s newsroom nationally.
While the MEAA is preparing to renegotiate its members’ enterprise agreement with Seven, its media director, Cassie Derrick, said some staff had already reported concerns that the network could be dodging its obligations to give staff a fair pay rise under its EBA.
“Even the lucky ones who got a pay rise without it being absorbed into their salary, still have not kept up with inflation over the last three years,” Derrick said.
“Quality journalism demands quality jobs, and it’s not acceptable for major employers to force their hard-working staff to struggle with wage stagnation while the cost of living is so high.”
Loading
Unlike some other media organisations, Seven’s staff are not highly unionised.
Two of Australia’s largest companies, supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, were recently hit with a $1 billion fine for staff underpayments, and Super Retail Group is facing a fresh legal challenge over allegations it has underpaid thousands of workers since 2019.
Other media companies including Nine, which owns this masthead, and the ABC have faced underpayment issues. In 2022, some staff at Nine were reimbursed after a company review found underpayments across a six-year period, and in 2020 the ABC agreed to pay $600,000 and backpay of $12 million in wages to staff, also across a six-year period.
A Seven spokesperson said the company was confident it was paying its news and current affairs employees appropriately and in line with the enterprise agreement and legislative obligations.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
Most Viewed in Business
Loading
