The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured a total of $256,000 in penalties in court, including for five ‘serious contraventions’ under the Protecting Vulnerable Workers laws, against a Melbourne toy retailer and its director for deliberately underpaying migrant employees.
The Federal Court has imposed a $215,000 penalty against the business, which operated pop-up stores in Melbourne shopping centres, and an additional $41,000 penalty against the owner and manager of the company.
Eight casual workers were paid low rates (from as little as $6.70 an hour), and some employees were not paid at all for some hours worked. Record-keeping and pay slip laws were also breached.
In addition to the penalties, the court has ordered the company to back-pay the employees a total of $21,748. Individual underpayments range from $395 to $5,041.
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