Coles underpaid salaried staff members in its supermarket and liquor businesses at least $20 million over the past six years, the company revealed in announcing its half-yearly results.
Coles has agreed to pay about $5.25 million to dairy co-operative Norco after an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found the supermarket giant failed to pass on the full price rise it charged consumers for Coles-branded fresh milk as it promised to do.
A claim by Coles for $40 million in tax credits for fuel that evaporates or leaks from the 3,000 tanks at its service stations — based on an argument that the company buys extra fuel to account for the loss — is “completely unreal”, a lawyer for the tax office told a court Monday.