Woolworths is being taken to court for underpaying its managers $1.2 million.

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has sued Woolworths over “major underpayments” of its salaried managers.

It comes two years after Woolworths disclosed in 2019 that it had underpaid thousands of its employees more than $300 million.

This admission triggered an investigation by the FWO in which a sample of 70 salaried Woolworths managers were assessed for their work between March 2018 and March 2019.

The probe found that those 70 employees were underpaid a total of $1.17 million during that period, so a Federal Court lawsuit will be launched relating to those employees.

The underpayments for affected individual managers ranged from $289 to $85,905 during the one-year timeframe, the FWO claims.

“We allege that Woolworths failed to ensure that annual salaries were sufficient when compared to the actual hours worked, leaving their salaried managers significantly underpaid,” says Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker.

“We also allege that significant underpayments have not been fully back-paid, and we will seek court orders for Woolworths to recalculate and rectify all underpayments for all affected employees.”