Canberra: Foot and Thai massage parlour owner Colin Kenneth Elvin fined in Federal Court after Fair Work investigation

A Canberra massage parlour has been fined nearly $1 million after its workers spent four years “living in fear” of their boss who had threatened to kill their families if they complained.

Canberra massage business has been fined nearly $1 million

A Canberra massage parlour has been fined $966,890 after its director threatened to kill workers’ families if they complained in what has been called “one of the most shocking cases of exploitation” in Australia.

The penalty was imposed in the Federal Court after seven Filipino workers were underpaid $971,092 at Belconnen’s Foot and Thai massage parlour between 2012 and 2016.

Justice Anna Katzmann found the migrant workers – six women and one man who all spoke limited English – had spent three to four years “living in fear” of the parlour’s owner and director, Canberra man Colin Kenneth Elvin.

The workers have been awarded an additional $1.166 million in compensation to the workers after the Fair Work Ombudsman commenced an investigation into his business.

Belconnen’s Foot and Thai massage business.

The seven exploited workers were recruited from the Philippines in the early 2010s and were sponsored to work in Australia.

Each day, the massage therapists were driven in a van from a property in Higgins, where they lived, to work, the court heard.

Fair Work inspectors found the migrants often commenced their work at 9.45am and worked through to 10 or 10.30pm, six days per week – but they were not paid the required overtime or penalty rates.

Underpayments of individual workers ranged from approximately $120,000 to $159,000. Sixof the employees were also required to pay back $800 in wages each fortnight, for months on end, when the shop underperforming.

The workers were employed as massage therapists. Generic image.

Each of the workers had financially dependent family members in the Philippines and routinely transferred part of the wages back home.

Mr Elvin, along with the workers’ former supervisor, Jun Millard Puerto, threatened to send the workers back to the Philippines if they told anyone about their working conditions.

Mr Elvin further threatened to have their families in the Philippines killed if they reported him or his company to the Department of Home Affairs.

The matter was heard in the Federal Court.

Justice Katzmann told the court Mr Elvin’s conduct was deliberate, “extremely serious” and involved the “systematic exploitation” of vulnerable visa holders.

“He was the person who decided to underpay the massage therapists, the person who required them to work unreasonable hours, and the person who threatened them and took other adverse action against them,” Justice Katzmann said.

The court further heard the workers were enticed to come to Australia on false promises, including that they would be paid award rates and not have to work more than an average of 38 hours a week.

Justice Katzmann found neither Mr Elvin nor Mr Puerto had exhibited any contrition, adding there was “no evidence to indicate that either man has learned anything”.

“(Each of the workers suffered) significant emotional harm and distress as a result of living in fear of (Mr Elvin) becoming angry and sending them back to the Philippines or of killing their families,” Justice Katzmann said.

“I had the strong impression from watching and hearing them in the witness box that their suffering was ongoing.” In a statement, Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth welcomed the penalties, which are the third-highest in the national regulator’s history.

“This matter is one of the most shocking cases of exploitation … and deserves the strongest possible condemnation,” she said.

“The deliberate and calculated exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers has absolutely no place in Australian society.”

Ms Booth said those tempted to breach Australia’s workplace laws should be aware that various changes to the Fair Work Act from 2017 onwards meant that far higher penalties could be imposed if deliberately exploitative conduct occurred today.