AFL to dump security firm at Marvel over alleged underpayment

The AFL will move to overhaul its reliance on private security firms amid revelations a leading company providing hundreds of guards to Marvel Stadium has allegedly exploited its workers.

GSS Group has become the latest high-profile security firm to face serious questions about the treatment of its often migrant, gig-economy workforce following the dramatic collapse of security giant MA Services Group in December.

According to pay records and testimony provided by GSS guards who patrolled Marvel Stadium during AFL games and concerts, the firm repeatedly failed to pay award rates for weekend shifts and engaged subcontractors who routinely paid workers in cash.

The allegations against GSS are similar to those faced by MA Services, which provided security and cleaning services to several AFL clubs and was due to be a key sponsor of the Melbourne Demons until The Age revealed it was engaged in alleged widespread tax fraud and the underpayment and exploitation of migrant workers.

While the claims involving GSS are not on the same scale as MA, they highlight systemic integrity issues within the private security sector, and the risk to organisations reliant on private guards becoming embroiled in wage theft scandals.

Three sources with knowledge of the allegations facing GSS said the AFL-owned Marvel Stadium was tipped off earlier this year about the possible underpayment of guards and, after making inquiries, was assured by GSS the problem was quarantined to subcontractors and had been rectified.

However, six GSS guards provided this masthead with payslips dating from between 2024 and March of this year that revealed they had been paid a flat hourly rate of $40.04 – $8 an hour less than the legal award rate on a Saturday shift and $22 less for each hour worked on a Sunday.

Some of the guards are immigrants or students and said they feared they would lose shifts if they complained to GSS management.

But they also queried whether the AFL was doing enough to ensure GSS was acting lawfully in its treatment of guards and in its reliance on subcontractors to provide the surplus workforce needed on game days.

“I accepted it [underpayment] because it was my only option to find work, but no one should feel they have to accept work below their legal entitlements. It’s exploitative,” one guard, who continues to work at Marvel Stadium, said.

Another guard said he was disgusted not to receive the award rate and said responsibility for the failure lay not only with GSS, but also with Marvel. The stadium has been owned and operated by the AFL since 2016, and helped