Melbourne travel agent fined $400,000 for underpaying migrant workers

Melbourne travel agency fined almost $400,000 for underpaying workers as a “condition” of their visa sponsorship.

Fair Work Inspectors found that two migrant workers were told cash back arrangements were a condition of Abella Travel sponsoring their 457 visas Picture: iStock

A “recidivist” Melbourne CBD travel agency and one of its directors has been slapped with an almost $400,000 fine for underpaying two Korean workers.

Fair Work inspectors found that both workers were told that the cash back arrangements would be a condition of Abella Travel Pty Ltd sponsoring them on 457 visas, according to a Fair Work Ombudsman statement.

One of the Korean workers gave evidence that the underpayments meant she couldn’t afford public transport, forcing her to walk long distances, while the other said it resulted in her having to share a bedroom in a share-house and borrow money from family.

The company, which operated travel agencies in both Melbourne and Korea, has been fined $332,100 by The Federal Circuit Court while its director Joung Hyung Lee has been handed a $66,420 bill after admitting to making a migrant worker pay back more than $20,000 of her wages between 2013 and 2015.

The company and Mr Lee had a similar cashback scheme with a second migrant worker, provided false records and failed to pay one of the employees properly, bringing the total wage theft for the two employees to $37,464.29, which has now been rectified.

The breaches occurred despite Abella Travel’s public commitment to future compliance with workplace laws in 2014 under the terms of a Court-Enforceable Undertaking, after they underpaid a Korean national more than $4,200 and breached pay slip and record-keeping laws.

The judgment was handed down on November 13 by Judge Heather Riley, who said that Abella Travel and Mr Lee were “recidivists” and that Mr Lee had “targeted vulnerable people and exploited them for his own financial benefit.”

“The respondents’ behaviour in this regard is deserving of considerable censure, especially as, while underpaying staff, (Mr Lee) has accumulated considerable equity in real estate, and $200,000 cash in the bank,” Judge Riley said.

“The respondents’ level of dishonesty is such in this case that I cannot be confident that they will not contravene again.”

The fines have been handed down amid a series of underpayment scandals in Australia, with celebrity chef George Calombaris found to have underpaid staff at his restaurants $7.8 million, which he has since repaid.