Cotton On has reneged on a decision to exclude 200 staff members from the JobKeeper scheme amid backlash from workers who claim to have been unfairly left out.
The retail giant currently has 5,500 workers receiving the $1,500-a-fortnight wage subsidy and initially found more than 2,500 were not eligible. However, a review of 376 team members has found 200 workers actually now qualify and will be included in the scheme.
The other 176 are still being reviewed with the hope they will also be eligible for JobKeeper. “Our goal is to get as many of our people onto the scheme as possible,” Michael Hardwick, Cotton On Chief Financial Officer told the ABC’s 7.30.
A Cotton On spokesperson told Yahoo Finance work over the past week had “resulted in approximately 200 more team members being added to the JobKeeper Program”.
“These team members were among a small group whose status required further review based on the framework we developed on advice from the ATO, and in partnership with PwC
[PricewaterhouseCoopers] and the Australian Retailers Association,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue our work to ensure we have as many of our Australian team supported by the Government’s JobKeeper subsidy as possible.”
