Bullying bosses: Million-dollar fines as minister wages war
EXCLUSIVE: BOSSES extorting “cashback’’ payments will be whacked with million-dollar fines this year to stop employers ripping off young workers.
NSW
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BOSSES paying third-world wages or demanding “cashback’’ payments from staff will be whacked with million-dollar fines this year to stop employers ripping off young workers.
The Federal Employment Minister will this week launch legislation to increase maximum penalties for breaches of the Fair Work Act to more than half a million dollars amid revelations that a number of Asian businesses have been caught paying staff half the minimum wage — using the excuse that wages are lower in Korea or China.
Takeaway food outlets, pubs and restaurants will also be singled out this year in a crackdown on “cashback’’ scams, where bosses pay award wages but make workers hand back some of the cash.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James Yesterday warned that young Australian workers are not getting a “fair go’’ as migrant bosses drive down wages.
Joyce Homeware, a retailer with stores in Mt Druitt and Liverpool, paid a shop assistant just $12 an hour — half the award rate of $23.74 on weekdays or $37.98 on weekends.
The owner-operators, Chinese couple Zheng Yi Zhang and Nai Fen Pan, yesterday agreed to backpay the woman $36,459, after intervention by Ms James’ office.
Ms James said some migrant bosses claimed ignorance of workplace laws.
Ms James said foreign students and backpackers were being offered jobs at well below the minimum rate: “They’re told, ‘This is the rate for Koreans, this is the rate for Chinese’.”
Federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash will toughen penalties for bullying bosses, with legislation to be introduced to Parliament next week increasing fines tenfold to $540,000 for a company, and $108,000 for individuals.
IN OTHER NEWS
The fines will be imposed for each offence — so a company that pays a waiter less than the award wage and also docks his pay for breaking a glass would face a maximum $1.08 million fine.
Albury cafe Canteen Cuisine was fined a record $532,000 this week over a “cashback’’ scam, after the Federal Circuit Court found the owner had used threats of violence, dismissal and deportation unless two Indian chefs handed back some of their pay cheques.
And 24 Pizza Hut franchisees have been ordered to backpay delivery drivers classified as contractors instead of employees.
FULL FORCE FINES
CURRENT MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR A COMPANY
BREACHING THE FAIR WORK ACT (2009): $54,000
NEW MAXIMUM PENALTY: $540,000 FOR A COMPANY
CURRENT MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR AN
INDIVIDUAL BREACHIN THE FAIR
WORK ACT: $10,800
NEW MAXIMUM PENALTY: $108,000
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