Anatolia Turkish Cuisine operators ordered to pay $100k in compensation

Former restaurant operators in a hip Hobart suburb have been ordered to pay $100,000 in compensation after they “deliberately” exploited several employees for almost 18 months.

OPERATORS of a former North Hobart restaurant have been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in compensation after a court ruled employees experienced “significant exploitation”.

The Federal Circuit Court ordered Anatolia Turkish Cuisine restaurant owner Oya Waechter pay $78,000 for underpaying workers a total of $32,411 between February 2015 and June 2016.

Waechter’s husband Peter Waechter was also ordered to pay $22,000 for his involvement in some breaches, including pay slip failures, while his wife owned the restaurant.

Affected workers included a waiter and an adult apprentice cook from Australia, a food-and-beverage attendant from Malaysia and a Pakistani kitchen attendant.

Most of the underpayments relate to the Malaysian student who was short-changed $24,800 over 12 months.

The Pakistani worker received only 10 per cent of his wages.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sarah Parker discovered the underpayments in 2016 when an investigation commenced following a request for assistance from staff.

Anatolia Turkish Cuisine, 321 Elizabeth Street North Hobart, interior

It was ruled that operators of the restaurant – which closed in 2016 – often paid wages late, or not at all, and amounts that were paid often did not reflect hours worked.

This led to a significant underpayment of minimum wage rates, overtime rates, casual loadings and penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work owed under the Restaurant Industry Award 2010.

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Judge Grant Riethmuller said the respondents’ actions were “deliberate”, and that they “must have simply ignored their obligations”.

“In this matter there has been significant exploitation of employees who for the most part, were never paid,” Judge Riethmuller said.

His Honour said the failure to provide the workers pay slips was a “serious contravention” of the Fair Work Act that “significantly disempowers employees”.

The court previously ordered Ms Waechter to back-pay all outstanding wages, with 98 per cent of underpayments remaining unpaid.