Huge fine for labour hire company

A labour hire company has been handed a record $480,000 fine after its director was found to have drug and theft convictions.

A Yarra Valley horticulture provider has been fined more than $480,000 after its director was found to have drug and theft convictions.

The Labour Hire Authority found Ung Services Pty Ltd, which supplied horticulture workers to businesses in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, failed to disclose that its new director Nico Keat had criminal convictions.

Seasonal workers pick grapes outside Canberra. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

The Supreme Court of Victoria issued fines of $386,742.72 to Ung Services, and $96,685.68 to Mr Keat, stating in its judgment “the knowing nature of the contraventions by UNG and Keat and their potential to undermine the Authority’s discharge of its protective and regulatory function, place them at the serious end of the behavioural spectrum”.

The combined penalty of $483,428.40 is a new record in Australia for labour hire law violations, and follows LHA’s cancellation of Ung Services’ labour hire licence in February.

Mr Keat had previously applied for a labour hire licence as director of a different company — Amatak Labour Services Pty Ltd. After LHA denied this application, he became a director of Ung Services, without notifying LHA.

Directors and other key staff involved in managing labour hire companies are required to pass a fit and proper persons test to protect workers.

Mr Keat had been found guilty of 12 offences relating to drug trafficking, theft, failure to answer bail, and suspected proceeds of crime and stolen goods.

Labour Hire Commissioner Steve Dargavel said “ensuring we have fit and proper people running Victorian labour hire companies is an important way we can protect workers, and improve the industry’s integrity”.