Businesses, owners fined almost $150k in 2022 for short-changing SA workers of more than $300k

SA employers were fined almost $150k by courts and tribunals last year, but that might be just the start of a hidden toll affecting workers. Read the full list of fined employers.

Daniel Komadina was only 18 when he took a job as a tiler with a family friend.

He had just finished school and had nothing on his mind other than getting a job and getting to work.

Four years later he left the job when the stress of trying to confront his then boss about suspected wage theft became too much.

After a battle through the courts Mr Komadina was awarded $146,277 in back pay and $30,950 in interest from Tomislav Cirjak, his former employer who was trading as Creation Ceramics.

Cirjak was ordered to pay the money back in $40 a month instalments – a penalty which would take 369 years for him to pay back what Mr Komadina was owed.

He said he never received a cent of those repayments.

A tiler who underpaid a young worker more than $146,000 over four years was ordered to repay his former employee – at a rate of just $40 per month.

The SA Employment Tribunal found that Mr Komadina had not been paid overtime or superannuation and had been made to use his own car without any contributions.

Mr Komadina became one of a host of South Australians to be underpaid and the subject of wage theft while on the job.

SA employers were fined almost $150,000 last year for underpaying or misclassifying workers, but the hidden toll on South Australian workers could be much higher.

“I always thought it was low pay, but Tomi would say that was how much he got paid when he was starting out,” he said.

“I started to become really suspicious when the car broke down. I was driving all over the place picking up supplies and I asked him for petrol money and he got really defensive.

“I felt like I was being manipulated.”

Mr Komadina performed a lot of the preparation work for the company and tasks like grouting and silicon sealing.

But Cirjak did not let him do the tiling himself.

“It was like he didn’t actually want to teach me to do the job, he just wanted to keep me in that role,” he said.

Mr Komadina begun pressuring Cirjak, demanding he receive the entitlements he was owed, but was met with only “passive aggression” and evasiveness.

Tomilsav Cirjak was ordered to pay back more than $140k to a worker he underpaid.

Despite a significant legal win, Mr Komadina said he was left despondent after the judgment against Cirjak.

Mr Komadina’s advice for young workers was to always make sure to get everything from an employer in writing.

“Don’t go in blind like I did,” he said.

“Make sure you are treated with respect. The court process destroyed my trust in people and at the time destroyed my self-esteem.”

Mr Komadina is not alone.

An Advertiser review of decisions handed down by the SA Employment Tribunal and Adelaide sittings of the Federal Circuit and Family Court has shown that prosecuted employers had underpaid workers by $301,000.

Some of the workers who were underpaid and exploited included a homeless man being paid only $10 an hour to work nights and weekends and an apprentice left to pay for his own flights after being sent to Queensland on a job.

In multiple cases the Tribunal and Federal Circuit Court found that workers had been exploited by their employers, in some cases over several years.

SA Unions secretary Dale Beasley says strong laws are needed to protect workers. Picture: The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

SA Unions secretary Dale Beasley said the underpayment punished by the Employment Tribunal and Federal Circuit Court was a “drop in the bucket of what is stolen from SA workers each year”.

“A 2019 report from the McKell Institute found that up to 170,000 South Australian workers are victims of wage theft to varying degrees, collectively costing them over $500m a year,” he said

“For many employers, wage theft is no accident, it’s their business model, and business is booming.

“Workers are the ones doing it tough, struggling to afford the essentials and keep a roof over their heads, they need strong laws to protect them from employers who would dud them their rightful wages.”

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the state government welcomed their laws being introduced at the Federal level setting nationally consistent wage theft laws.

“While the vast majority of businesses do the right thing, we have heard many examples of the deliberate exploitation faced by vulnerable South Australian workers,” he said.

“We will continue to advocate for strong criminal penalties for the deliberate and systematic underpayment of workers, and will await the outcome of these new Federal laws before determining whether any further legislation is needed on a state level.”

Tomislav Cirjak trading as Creation Ceramics

Ordered to $177,227.90 for underpayment including interest. Fined a total $33,050 for multiple breaches.

A young tiler who worked for the company for more than four years was paid below the minimum rate for all work he was performing.

He was also not paid overtime or any allowances during his time with the company.

All up he was underpaid more than $140,000 and interest of just over $30,950 was ordered.

As of January last year, Mr Cirjak had not paid any of the back pay.

Employment Tribunal deputy president Stephen Lieschke said the young employee had been exploited by his boss.

“As a young inexperienced worker, who was not a union member, the applicant did not have access to this key defensive information,” he said.

“Instead, he had to trust his employer would comply with the law. This trust was then repeatedly exploited over five years.”

Global Smile Pty Ltd and Lilian Lihua Chan

Ordered to pay $17,223 in underpayment. Company fined $22,000 while Ms Chan fined $11,500.

Worker was employed as a part time office manager and receptionist on weekends at a remedial massage business.

She was paid a flat rate of $50 and 10 per cent of sales by the massage therapists on the day.

The worker was not paid for any leave or paid superannuation. The business owners did not provide any pay slips.

The Tribunal held that the worker was exploited over her nine months with the company.

The company has since closed and has no assets. The Tribunal noted that there was a real possibility the worker would never be paid her backwages.

Solar Storage Australia Pty Ltd trading as Lumina Group and Bradley Elliot aka Horatio Branch

Ordered to pay $16,310 in superannuation contributions. Company fined $13,000 and Mr Elliot fined $2600.

A union-led prosecution on behalf of a worker, who did not have mandatory superannuation contributions made.

The worker also did not receive accurate and regular pay slips and was not provided with a Fair Work information statement.

The worker raised the superannuation pay “many times” with Mr Elliot, who told him there had been “hiccups” in the payments.

Mr Elliot told the worker he had been paid in September 2021 – but no money had been transferred.

The superannuation was only paid in 2022 shortly before the company and Mr Elliot were before the Tribunal. Mr Elliot said the pay mistakes had been because of Covid disruptions and were beyond his control.

Stebonheath Pty Ltd and Paul Marcus

Ordered to pay $10,610 in unpaid superannuation. Mr Marcus fined $9,324

For six years, the worker was employed as an administrative worker helping with animal relocation.

Pay slips issued by the company, of which Mr Marcus was sole managing director, recorded more than $10,000 in superannuation payments which were not made.

Mr Marcus did not attend any of the hearings or provide a defence to the claims made against him.

The Tribunal heard that Stebonheath was in liquidation and Mr Marcus had declared personal bankruptcy before the proceedings.

JFC Australia Co Ltd

Ordered to pay $17,504.98 in unpaid overtime plus $3850 interest.

The worker was employed as a sales representative for a wholesale food importer which provided food products to restaurants and grocery stores.

The worker was on a roster with other sales representatives which required a week of work in the company’s warehouse every three weeks.

In that week the worker would work from 6am to 9am in the warehouse before doing a normal 9am-5pm day as a sales representative.

The company argued before the Tribunal that the worker should have finished his days earlier to ensure he only worked a 38 hour week.

The Tribunal held that the warehouse work should have been considered overtime and the worker had been underpaid.

Gilbridge Pty Ltd

Unpaid overtime of $35,123.67 plus $1764.44 in interest. Company fines $1800. Directors fined $500 each.

The worker was employed as a store manager at a new Total Tools franchise opened by the company.

The worker claimed there was an arrangement in place that allowed for worker to receive a share of the business after three years of service. There was no contract to reflect that claim.

The Tribunal found that the worker had “little concern” for his normal employee rights as he was working towards a share of the business.

The worker was challenged on the number of hours he had worked and denied he had overstated his hours - despite evidence from other employees.

In the “unusual” circumstances of the case, the Tribunal only imposed fines for the company’s failure to provide employee records.

Joseph Box

Underpayment of $3912 plus $585 in interest. Mr Box fined $10,000.

The worker was employed by now defunct company Go Wasp Pty Ltd.

As a first year electrical apprentice, the worker was underpaid – including being paid at 32 per cent lower than the minimum wage.

He was also not paid overtime and the company failed to reimburse the apprentice’s flight costs when the company sent him to Queensland to work with another employee.

The company has since been liquidated.

The Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union, which brought the prosecution on behalf of the worker, argued that the worker had been part of a “systematic scheme to dishonestly exploit workers”.

Barry Ciotti

Underpaid $939.70. Fined $4662.

Mr Ciotti operated a chauffeur-transport business under a series of names including Adelaide Chauffeur Company and Chauffers Adelaide.

The worker was employed as a casual driver

The Fair Work Ombudsman ordered Mr Ciotti to pay the worker almost $1000 in underpayment after the worker was misclassified.

Mr Ciotti did not obey the order and did not file any defence when taken to court.

The Federal Circuit and Family Court found that Mr Ciotti was still operating his chauffeur business and there was a risk other employees were being underpaid.

3 Rundle Mall Pty Ltd, 132 Grenfell Street Convenience Pty Ltd and Ethan Okili

$15,220.71 in unpaid entitlements. Fined $16,039.80.

The two companies operate conveniences stores in the city.

In October 2019 the Fair Work Ombudsman found that a worker had been underpaid in ten aspects of his work including loading on his minimum wages.

Five other workers were also identified by the Ombudsman as being underpaid.

Mr Okili told the court he was “deeply remorseful and embarrassed” by the proceedings and said he had sold the previous stores and was running only one store in Sydney.

SkyJohn Pty Ltd and Peter Albert Robinson

$1019.34 in unpaid entitlements. Company fined $16,550 and Mr Robinson fined $3330.

Worker was employed by SkyJohn, a small business, and left the company with leave outstanding.

The company did not pay the full amount of leave but paid some in instalments by order of the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Both the company and Mr Robinson did not take part in the court proceedings.

The Court held that Mr Robinson had “reneged” on his agreement to pay the remaining leave entitlements.

Ziad Andary

Fined $4620.

Mr Andary ran the Valley Pizza in Nuriootpa and had been previously fined for underpaying workers.

A Fair Work Ombudsman investigation found that a young, homeless worker was being paid $10 an hour to work at the restaurant.

The worker was not paid any loading for working until midnight or working on weekends.

Despite the Ombudsman issuing a notice requiring Mr Andary to rectify the underpayment, the worker did not receive any further pay.

The court found there had been no co-operation with the investigation and imposed a “significant” fine as a deterrent to other people underpaying workers.