A clock-in system that quietly trimmed minutes off every shift has landed ALDI Foods with an approved class action settlement estimated at $55.2 million.
The Federal Court of Australia approved the settlement on October 23, 2026, resolving claims brought on behalf of 32,308 current and former ALDI employees across the country. The workers say they performed unpaid work before and after their rostered shifts - and that ALDI's timekeeping system masked the shortfall for years.
The case centred on ALDI's Kronos timekeeping system. Store employees could punch in up to 10 minutes before a shift or punch out up to 10 minutes after. But the system automatically rounded those times to match the rostered schedule. The practical effect: employees were not paid for the actual minutes they spent at work outside their rostered hours.
For warehouse staff, the problem looked different. Workers performed a range of tasks before their shifts started - gearing up, preparing equipment, getting to their stations. A 2022 Federal Circuit Court decision found that these "pre-commencement tasks" constituted paid work. ALDI had previously treated them as "getting ready for work" - not something that triggered a pay obligation.
After that 2022 ruling, ALDI launched a voluntary payment program. It reviewed records, paid current warehouse employees for pre-shift tasks, and later extended payments to current store employees backdated to...
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