A Melbourne construction firm and a Tasmanian director have been fined a total of more than $50,000 for payslips, record keeping, and payment breaches by the Federal Circuit and Family Court.
The construction firm, Designer Projects Victoria Pty Ltd, trading as Designer Projects, was penalised for failing to obey a compliance notice issued by a Fair Work inspector over unpaid accrued leave and not providing pay slips.
The inspector believed the worker had not been paid for 220 hours in accrued but untaken annual leave entitlements when his employment with the business ended.
Designer Projects was penalised $39,960 as well as being ordered to back pay the worker while one of the company’s directors, Visna Thanthrige, who was involved in the contraventions, was penalised $3,996.
Separately, Tasmanian director Gary Dupree was penalised by the Federal Circuit and Family Court in response to his involvement in the failure to follow a compliance notice requiring the back payment of entitlements to 31 wait and kitchen staff between July 2018 and February 2020.
Mr Dupree was also found to be involved in a breach of record-keeping laws by the regulator.
The fair work inspector issued two compliance notices to Mr Dupree’s restaurants in October 2020 after forming the belief that workers at the Solstice Cafe Restaurant, Jimmy D’s Bar and Grill, and the Moonah Hotel had been underpaid.
As a result, the court imposed an $8,000 penalty against Mr Dupree which it ordered to be paid to the workers to partially rectify the underpayments.
The matter was investigated as part of the FWO’s auditing crackdown targeting Hobart food precincts where it recovered $582,450 in wages for 376 underpaid workers.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said businesses that failed to act on compliance notices would face penalties in court on top of having to back pay workers.
“When compliance notices are not followed, we are prepared to take legal action to ensure workers receive their lawful entitlements,” said Ms Parker.
“Any employees with concerns about their pay or entitlements should contact us for free advice and assistance.”
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