The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured $12,787 in penalties in court against the operators of a cleaning business based in Campsie, Sydney.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court imposed penalties of $10,656 against Dynamics Clean Services Pty Ltd and $2,131 against its sole director Alan Avalos.
The penalties were imposed in response to Dynamics Clean Services failing to comply with a Compliance Notice requiring the back-payment of entitlements owed to a Nepalese casual cleaner who was not paid anything for about a week’s work. Mr Avalos was involved in the contravention.
A Fair Work Inspector issued a Compliance Notice to Dynamics Clean Services in February 2021 after forming a belief that the worker had not been paid entitlements owed under the Cleaning Services Award 2020, including the casual minimum wage and casual weekend penalty rates.
Dynamics Clean Services admitted failing to comply with the Compliance Notice and Mr Avalos admitted he was involved in the breach. The notice required the company to calculate and back-pay the worker’s outstanding entitlements plus superannuation by March 2021.
In imposing the penalties, Judge Nicholas Manousaridis cited Judge Michael Jarrett in Fair Work Ombudsman v VS Investment Group Pty Ltd: “The failure to comply with a notice properly issued by the applicant in the course of its investigations and the discharge of its statutory functions is serious. Recipients of such notices should be left under no misapprehension about their obligations to comply with those notices.”
