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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.”
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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.
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