Your Fave Ethical Company Lush Admits They've Underpaid Up To 5,000 Of Their Staff

Lush has admitted they owe around $2 million in back pay.

While they might strive to be as ethical as any profit-geared company can be, Lush Australia has admitted they have been underpaying their staff for the past eight years.

The director of Lush Australia, Peta Granger, admitted to the error (a result of outdated payroll infrastructure) in a press conference.

That error, which was traced back to 2010, has resulted in up to 5,000 workers being underpaid, amounting in as much as $2 million owed in back pay.

"What has become alarmingly clear to us is that our internal payroll systems have not kept pace with our growth," Granger told media.

"It was irresponsible to imagine that such a manual and outdated system could work for a business of our size.

"We are sincerely sorry for letting our staff down so badly."

More than 5,000 staff of Australian cosmetics retailer Lush are owed as much as $2 million in back pay, the company admits. "Getting people's pay right is a basic expectation of any workplace, and we are devastated to have gotten things so wrong" - Peta Granger - @LUSH_AusNZ. pic.twitter.com/IvOayzGs2N

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) July 17, 2018

To rectify the issue, Lush Australia has committed a further $1.5 million to create a system that will allow those timesheets, dating back to 2010, to be re-entered digitally. This will be in addition to the estimated $2 million in back pay owed to workers.

We have made a mistake and are sorry for this. We hope through reporting ourselves, being transparent and calculating back pay and paying it back including interest will show our ethics in action. X The LUSH Team

— Lush Australia & NZ (@LUSH_AusNZ) July 17, 2018

While the news serves as a shock given how Lush posits themselves as an ethical company, Granger explained that the situation was mortifying and they're doing their best to correct it.

"It was a horrifying moment, completely mortifying," Granger said.

"We would never intentionally underpay our staff. We are devastated to have gotten things so wrong."

Header Image: iStock.com/puhimec