Workers ripped off $14K through Queensland company’s unpaid ‘work experience’ scheme

A BRISBANE company has been accused of exploiting 10 workers through a dodgy “work experience” program.

A QUEENSLAND company will face court after allegedly ripping off workers by more than $14,000 through an illegal unpaid work experience program.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has started proceedings in the Federal Court against Workforce Solutions Pty Ltd and its general manager Mathew Micallef after the company allegedly organised for 10 workers to work up to 26 days for free, claiming it was all “work experience”.

Workforce Solutions, based in Archerfield, Brisbane, is a contract labour business which offers temporary labour hire, recruitment solutions and training across a range of roles and industries.

While the workers in question received no wages for their labour, the business charged their clients $15 an hour for the work performed by each person.

According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the workers initially applied for paid roles within the company, but had their applications rejected due to a lack of industry experience or job references.

The workers were then offered unpaid “work experience” instead.

The 10 workers, two of whom were just 19 at the time, allegedly performed low-skilled manual work at three businesses in the warehousing and manufacturing industries in Brisbane.

There is no evidence to suggest these businesses were aware of the underpayments.

Nine workers are believed to have been underpaid in 2015 while one was allegedly underpaid for work performed last year.

The alleged underpayments were worth a whopping $14,376, with one of worker owed $4,525 alone.

The Fair Work Ombudsman claims the workers should have been classified as employees, and were therefore entitled to minimum hourly wage rates and entitlements.

While the company has since paid the workers their wages, it faces huge penalties of up to $54,000 per breach, while Mr Micallef could be forced to pay $10,800 for each violation.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said she hoped to deter employers from using unlawful unpaid work schemes as a source of free labour.

Ms James also said it was especially disappointing the alleged exploitation of one worker occurred after Workforce Solutions had already been sent a contravention letter explaining that its unpaid work experience program was illegal.

“Unpaid placements or ‘internships’ are legitimate in certain cases — for example, where they are part of an approved program, such as vocational placement related to a course of study,” she said.

“But the law prohibits the exploitation of workers by characterising them as ‘interns’ or as doing ‘work experience’ when they are fulfilling the role of an employee. Such workers must be paid minimum employee entitlements.

“With the range of resources available for employers, there is no excuse for mistakes or ignorance about their obligations to pay workers.”

The Fair Work Ombudsman also hopes to force the company to complete an audit of all workers involved in their work experience program since the start of 2015.

Unfortunately, the Workforce Solutions case is not an isolated one.

Last year, the Fair Work Ombudsman began court action against fashion industry start-up Her Fashion Box, a former Shark Tank winner, for allegedly running an unlawful unpaid internship program and underpaying three workers more than $40,000.

And in 2016, a Sydney media company was ordered to pay $272,850 in penalties over unpaid internships.

Workforce Solutions has been contacted for comment.

To contact the Fair Work Commission click here or call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.

[e-mail]