The former operators of two Hello Juice outlets in Victoria were penalised $276,929 by the Federal Circuit Court for “deliberately exploiting” 27 employees.
Skypic Group Pty Ltd and Skypac Group Pty Ltd, who operated the Hello Juice outlets until April 2019 and March 2020 respectively, were penalised $161,988.75 and $80,325 respectively. Hua Gong, who was the general manager of both stores, was penalised an $34,616.
The underpayments were uncovered in an auditing activity, in which the Fair Work Ombudsman found that employees had been underpaid of the ordinary hourly rates, casual loadings and penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work they were entitled to under the Fast Food Industry Award 2010.
The 27 employees were underpaid a total of $38,458 over various periods in 2017, though they have been back-paid.
Gong and Skypac Group Pty Ltd also breached laws relating to cashback arrangements on two separate occasions by requesting a worker aged in her 30s to pay amounts totalling $4,42.19 to cover part of a rectification payment and a tax refund payment made to her ($1,300 of which was paid).
Gong and both companies were found to have breached laws relating to payslips and record-keeping. Skypic Group and Gong also failed to comply with a Notice to Produce records or documents, and Skypac Group and Gong provided inspectors with false or misleading records.
“Enforcing compliance with workplace laws in the fast food, restaurant and cafe sector, which employs many vulnerable workers, continues to be a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman,” Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said.
“Employers in this sector are on notice that they need to comply with workplace laws. The FWO expects all employers to comply with workplace obligations and they should access our free tools and resources if they need assistance. Any employees with queries about pay should contact us.”
Judge John O’Sullivan said Skypac and Skypic had previously been put on notice to comply with workplace laws, the breaches were serious and deliberate, and the penalties should “act as a deterrent to others who may be minded to flout the law”.
Judge O’Sullivan described the bevaviour as, “an illustration of, an all too common, a phenomena where employers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who exploit workers (including, or especially, from within their own ethnic communities) and then come before the Court and seek to rely on their own alleged ignorance of workplace laws or foreign cultural norms to mitigate any penalties that need to be applied when they are finally caught out”.
This article was first published on Inside Small Business, a sibling website to Inside Franchise Business Executive.
