Story Archive

It’s For Charity

The Appco Group is one of the world’s largest fundraising agencies, raising money for some of Australia’s most well-known charities. But according to attorney Rory Markham, over 500 of the agency’s former employees have claimed that they were overworked, underpaid, and bullied. “Of the 200 that have been verified,” Markham said, “their documents suggest that on average they worked for eight months or longer in Appco and that their underpayment was about A$52,000 (US$38,000) per year.” Worse still was the punishment employees faced for failing to meet sales goals. “The punishment for not hitting their target,” former employee Tyrone Corbett said, “was to shove a cigarette up your bottom, pull it out and then smoke it.” Other alleged punishments included licking underpants and cross-dressing. In a statement, the Appco Group agreed the alleged behavior was “outrageous and completely unacceptable,” said the company has nothing to hide, and promised to investigate all of the claims. (MS/ABC Australia) ...Meanwhile, they will be developing new and creative ways to punish the offenders.