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The ombudsman has secured more than $15,000 in penalties against an electrical services business that paid an apprentice $100 for five months of work.
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FWO targets underpayment of apprentices
31 March 2023
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The FWO has secured more than $15,000 in penalties against the operators of an electrical services business in Melbourne for a deliberate contravention that affected two young apprentices.
The Federal Court imposed a $13,320 penalty against DB Richardson Trading Pty Ltd, which operated the electrical services business trading as Electrafi as well as a $1,998 penalty against the company’s sole director Desmond Brian Richardson.
The penalties were handed down as the firm failed to obey a compliance notice that required it to back pay entitlements of the two young workers it had employed for periods between January 2020 and February 2021.
A Fair Work inspector issued the compliance notice to the firm in September 2021 after it had formed a belief that the company had underpaid the workers’ minimum wages according to their award as well as their annual leave entitlements.
In the proceedings, the FWO alleged that one of the workers aged 20–21 during his employment was paid a total of $100 for approximately five months of casual work and four months of full-time work between May 2020 and February 2021.
It also alleged the other young worker who was aged 19 at the time of his employment was paid a total of $3,250 for more than three months of casual work and more than seven months of part-time work between January and December 2020.
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In imposing the penalties and ordering the business to back pay the two young workers, Judge Mansini said the “degree of underpayment and consequential loss” suffered by the workers was serious and noted that they remained unpaid.
She said the workers were in a more vulnerable position to be taken advantage of because they were apprentices.
Judge Mansini found the failure to obey the compliance notice was deliberate and that there was a need to deter DB Richardson Trading Pty Ltd and Mr Richardson as well as other employers from similar future conduct.
“It is important that the penalty be imposed at a level sufficient to discourage such contraventions being treated by employers in the electrical industry as just another cost of doing business,” she said.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said business operators who fail to address compliance notices should be aware of the greater penalties they could face on top of having to back pay workers.
“Protecting vulnerable workers, like young workers, continues to be a priority for the FWO,” she said.
“The underpayments in this case were significant and we have now secured court orders to force the employer to make back-payment, plus penalties to deter this occurring again.”
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