Business
by Kelmeny Fraser
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Tourism empire Hamilton Island Enterprises has been accused of censoring news alleging its resort staff had been underpaid after footage emerged of a corporate office employee whisking away stacks of newspapers - ordinarily collected by hotel porters - to Island headquarters.
The footage, obtained by the newspaper, shows a personal assistant to Island chief executive officer Glenn Bourke loading bags of
The Courier-Mail newspaper into a corporate golf buggy on Saturday - the day a critical report on its pay problems was published.
Staff had spoken out in the article about claims they worked excessive unpaid overtime for years at Hamilton Island - owned by the billionaire Oatley family of Sydney to Hobart yacht racing fame - were routinely working up to 60 hours or more a week for no extra pay, and were short-changed in back-payments recently paid by the multimillion-dollar operator.