The supermarket group had previously rubbished union claims it owed around $10 million, calling the estimate wildly overstated. Now it faces a far larger bill while avoiding any formal admission of wrongdoing.
The in-principle deal, reached on Thursday with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, settles Federal Court action covering about 32,000 current and former warehouse and store employees. Union claims focused on staff being required to complete work before clocks officially started and after shifts finished without pay.
Under the settlement, Aldi will add $26 million in further payments to the $29 million already distributed to affected workers. That structure allows the company to resolve the case while contesting the scale of the alleged shortfall.
Unpaid pre and post shift duties have become a recurring flashpoint in retail pay disputes, especially where tight rostering meets demanding productivity targets. The SDA alleges similar practices across another major employer and is pursuing that case separately in the Federal Court.
Employment law specialists say these disputes often turn on whether activities like setting up, closing down or attending briefings count as paid work. The Aldi settlement shows how costly it can be when those grey areas are tested through large-scale legal action.
