Mobizone: Adelaide small business penalised $5000 after landmark $550 fine pay refusal prosecution

EXCLUSIVE: AN Adelaide small business has been fined thousands of dollars for breaching workplace laws after a landmark ruling over its refusal to pay a significantly smaller fine to the country’s employment watchdog.

2.8.2015.Ray Kebbe's business Mobizone has been fined $5000 after he refused to pay $550 spot fine. Ray Kebbe with his wife Nissrine at their Jetty Rd , Glenelg store. pic tait schmaal.

AN Adelaide small business has been fined thousands of dollars for breaching workplace laws after a landmark ruling over its refusal to pay a significantly smaller fine to the country’s employment watchdog.

In an Australian first, the Industrial Relations Court last week penalised Mobizone Pty Ltd $5000 after it repeatedly ignored demands to pay the $550 on-the-spot fine.

The Fair Work Ombudsman had last year fined the phone and electronics business, which is also a repair shop, after an audit uncovered illegal bookkeeping for its overseas workers on 457 visas.

The Glenelg-based business was found to have only issued pay-slips to an unnamed Indian telecommunications technician “infrequently, and only when he asked for them”.

Under the Fair Work Act, employers must automatically issue pay-slips to workers within one working day of paying their wages.

The audit, undertaken in June last year, was part of the agency’s “regular monitoring” of businesses, who recruit staff on 457 skilled worker visas.

But Mobizone’s director Ray Kebbe, 39, refused “numerous requests” to pay the fine, leading to the federal agency taking its unprecedented legal action.

After a hearing in Adelaide two weeks ago, the court fined the business, which has three full- time staff, $3500 and ordered Mr Kebbe, of Morphettville, pay a further $1500.

The business had faced a maximum penalty of up to $25,500 and Mr Kebbe, who emigrated from Lebanon in 1989, up to $5100.

While the test case’s judgment has yet to be published, Ombudsman Natalie James will today warn other employers that ignoring the watchdog “won’t make us go away”.

“Instead of having a $550 fine to pay, the financial penalty is now significantly greater, and comes with publicity and potential risk to the business’ reputation over its conduct,” she said.

She said when employees do not receive a pay slip, it undermined “their ability to understand how their wages have been calculated” and to check they have received their full entitlements.

Mr Kebbe, a father-of-two, founded his business in 2010 and closed a sister store in North Adelaide last year. His wife, Nissrine, 34, is also a director but was not involved in the case.

He declined to be interviewed but in a statement said he thought he was filing correctly using the MYOB accounting system but it was “brought to my attention that I had made a mistake”. He was not issued a warning and he had “concerns” so sought legal advice.

“Most importantly, my employees were always paid correctly and on time, and received all of their entitlements,” he said.

“Unfortunately the... ombudsman did not appreciate that my employees had suffered no loss.”

A second similar prosecution involved Dragon Tea House Pty Ltd, which operates a CBD Chinese restaurant, and its majority owner Xiaoxu Zhou.

It was accused of failing to issue pay slips to a restaurant manager on a 457 visa and a front-of-house employee on a student visa, both of whom were Chines.

That decision has yet to be handed down.