B&E Foods: Ormeau poultry processor slugged $150K in court

A Logan court has handed out $310K worth of fines in total to a Gold Coast poultry processing giant and two other companies.

A Gold Coast poultry processor and its director have been slugged $150,000 in court for using unlicensed labour hire workers despite it being warned of the illegality of its arrangements by the Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit.

Ormeau-based B&E Poultry (Queensland) Pty Ltd, trading as B&E Foods, and its director Xu Chun Dong were, however, spared convictions by Beenleigh Magistrate Michael O’Driscoll.

In addition to this, two other companies which provided the unlicensed labour hire, GY Services Pty Ltd and MK Sun Pty Ltd, were also fined in court on Monday.

B&E Foods at 94 Burnside Rd, Ormeau. Picture: Google Maps

They were fined $40,000 each while their directors, Guang Yang and Shijun Jiang respectively, were fined $15,000 each.

In October last year, a third company which provided unlicensed labour hire, Fancey Pty Ltd was fined $50,000.

OIR prosecutor Jason Gibbons told the court yesterday B&E was a “well-resourced company” with an annual wage bill of $1.6m in Queensland and therefore “shouldn’t (have) needed the department to come in and tell them what to do”.

The offences followed the introduction of the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017, which came into effect on April 16, 2018.

However, the court heard the necessary licenses in this instance were not applied for until July 2019.

“The new act came in, there was a large media campaign at the time stressing the need for providers to apply for a license,” Mr Gibbons said.

The court heard GY Services and MK Sun were both no longer trading.

No convictions were recorded against any of the labour hire firms or their directors.

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