Welvin & Kevin Pty Ltd: Fair Work Ombudsman applies to wind up Salamanca Wharf Cafe owners
The Fair Work Ombudsman has commenced court action to wind up the company behind a Hobart cafe where five workers were underpaid. Here’s what happens next.
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The Fair Work Ombudsman has commenced action to wind up the company behind a Salamanca cafe where five employees were underpaid, alleging the company failed to pay its $22,000 fine for wage theft.
The action, commenced earlier in August, seeks a court order to liquidate Welvin & Kevin Pty Ltd, the company which previously operated Salamanca Wharf Cafe at Castray Esplanade.
The cafe closed in early 2022 in the wake of a wage theft scandal, in which the company was found by the Federal Circuit and Family Court to have underpaid five employees between December 2018 and March 2020.
One of the employees, from Nepal, was a visa-holder at the time and four of the other employees were young workers, aged 17 to 19, the ombudsman previously said.
The Federal Court fined Welvin & Kevin $22,000 in March 2022 and imposed additional penalties of $3,000 against company director Zhi Zhi Tan and $4200 against company majority shareholder and manager Qingxiang (Kevin) Meng.
The ombudsman previously said that while Welvin & Kevin “back-paid most of the workers’ entitlements,” it failed to back-pay the workers’ superannuation entitlement.
It can now be revealed that the company has allegedly failed to pay its fine.
“The Fair Work Ombudsman filed wind up proceedings against Welvin & Kevin Pty Ltd on 1 August 2023 in the Federal Court,” an ombudsman spokesman said.
“These proceedings relate to an outstanding penalty which is payable to the Commonwealth of Australia as ordered in the Federal Circuit and Family Court in proceedings commenced by the Fair Work Ombudsman.”
Welvin & Kevin is yet to respond to the ombudsman’s application.
The matter is set down for a hearing on September 5.
According to records held by corporate regulator ASIC, Mr Meng is no longer involved with the company, which is now solely owned and operated by Mr Tan.
The ground-floor tenancy below Salamanca Wharf Hotel was replaced last year by Farzi Hobart, an unrelated cafe against which there is no allegation of wrongdoing.
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Originally published as Welvin & Kevin Pty Ltd: Fair Work Ombudsman applies to wind up Salamanca Wharf Cafe owners
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