‘If you complain, I will kill you’: Cafe owner slapped with $532k fine for ‘cashback’ scheme

A CAFE owner who threatened to deport and even kill foreign workers has been fined more than half a million dollars.

The penalty is the largest ever achieved by Fair Work.

A NSW cafe owner who threatened to deport and even “kill” foreign workers has been slapped with a record fine of more than half a million dollars.

Fares Ghazale, the former owner-operator of the Canteen Cuisine in Albury, which closed in 2014, has been penalised $88,810 and his company Rubee Enterprises Pty Ltd a further $444,100 in the Federal Circuit Court.

The $532,910 penalty is the largest ever achieved as a result of legal action brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman, dwarfing the $408,348 penalty secured against a Brisbane 7-Eleven store for also exploiting foreign workers.

The court found Ghazale exploited five workers, two of whom were Indian cooks coerced into paying back portions of their wages under threat of violence, dismissal and withdrawal of support for their visas.

The two Indian employees were underpaid a total of $32,063 and $28,858. Three Australian citizens were also underpaid, a waitress $11,273, a cook $8946 and an apprentice cook $6766.

One of the Indian workers was sponsored by Ghazale on 457 skilled worker visa, while the other was on a bridging visa while his 457 visa application was pending.

Ghazale had promised the two workers annual salaries in excess of $50,000 for a 38-hour week, but they were generally paid flat rates of $1000 and $830 for working 60 hours per week, including nights and weekends.

Soon after commencing employment, the workers were told they would only be allowed to keep a fraction of their wages each week. The underpayments, combined with the “cashback” scheme, resulted in them being paid as little as $6 an hour.

The employees were coerced into going to an ATM to withdraw cash to repay Ghazale amounts ranging from $450 to $940 a week for one worker, and between $360 and $2000 for the other, totalling $11,050 and $10,680 over several months.

According to one employee’s affidavit evidence, Ghazale threatened to “contact Immigration” when he complained about the cashback scam.

“If anything happens to my business, I will kill you,” the employee claimed Ghazale told him. “If you complain to anyone, I will kill you and cancel your visa.”

When the second employee complained, Ghazale threatened to withdraw support for the pending 457 visa application. He later said he could not afford to pay the money back, to which Ghazale responded by “shouting and demanding he repay $500 cash each week if he wanted to get the visa”, according to the FWO.

The employee gave affidavit evidence that at one point during this exchange, Ghazale dragged him by the collar and attempted to punch him. The matter was reported to Albury police.

The Indian employees gave evidence that the underpayments left them struggling to meet their most basic expenses, including buying groceries.

One of the employees gave evidence that he had to borrow a mattress from friends because he could not afford to buy furniture and that he lost significant amounts of weight due to stress. He could also not afford to buy clothes or go out socially.

In his judgment, Judge Tom Altobelli found that the treatment of the Indian employees was “grossly exploitative” and described the conduct as “highly aggravating and extremely serious” and “particularly saddening”.

“[Ghazale] exploited his position of power to extract significant sums from each of the employees, and in effect, pay them wages as low as $6 an hour. It is also highly aggravating that [Ghazale] used violence, and threats of violence, to obtain the repayments,” Judge Altobelli said.

Judge Altobelli found that the cashback scheme was part of a “deliberate strategy of deceit to hide the ongoing contraventions of workplace laws” and that Ghazale had “deliberately exploited the imbalance of power between sponsor and visa holder in order to achieve financial gain”.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the record penalties sent a clear message. “These record penalties are a big blow in the fight to stamp out deliberate exploitation of overseas workers in Australia,” Ms James said.

“The minority of rogue employers in Australia intent on preying on the vulnerability of overseas workers should be warned that we will do everything in our power to pursue you and hold you to account.

“Business models built around blatant exploitation of overseas workers are completely unacceptable. They create an uneven playing ground for the majority of business owners who do the right thing and tarnish the reputation of business in Australia.”

In total, the two Indian and three Australian workers were underpaid $87,909. In addition to the penalties, the Court has ordered Ghazale and his company back-pay the five workers in full.

In the event that this order is not complied with due to insolvency, the Court has ordered that part of the penalties imposed be paid to the workers to rectify the underpayments.

In the 2015-16 financial year, the FWO recovered more than $3 million for all visa-holders and 38 of the 50 litigations filed involved a visa-holder.

Originally published as ‘If you complain, I will kill you’: Cafe owner slapped with $532k fine for ‘cashback’ scheme