The Fair Work Ombudsman has helped local workers recover nearly $400,000 in unpaid wages, including more than $300,000 from court actions started by the regulator.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has helped local workers recover nearly $400,000 in unpaid wages, including more than $300,000 from court actions started by the regulator.
Fair Work brought proceedings before the courts against three Perth businesses and recovered $300,491 from two Han’s Cafe franchisees, in Armadale and Rockingham, and Sureguard Security in Rockingham.
The three businesses were penalised a total of $161,270 as a result of the court actions.
Acting Fair Work ombudsman Kristen Hannah said the regulator would continue to use the full suite of tools at its disposal to deal with non-compliant businesses.
“The breaches uncovered by the inspectors in respect of three businesses audited during these campaigns were so serious as to warrant litigation in court, resulting in hefty penalties and back-payment bills,” she said.
“We will not hesitate to take firm action against employers who we find to be seriously and deliberately flouting the law, as was the case in these matters.”
Fair Work inspectors also assessed the time and wages records of 148 businesses in Armadale, Kwinana and Rockingham, as well as 147 businesses across Albany, Denmark, Manjimup and their surrounding regions.
Of the 148 businesses audited in southern Perth, 39 per cent were found to be not complying with their obligations under Australian workplace laws.
The campaign found that 26 per cent of these businesses were not paying their workers correctly, and 19 per cent were not complying with pay slip and record-keeping obligations.
Inspectors uncovered a total of 92 individual breaches across 57 businesses. A total of $40,391 was recovered for 73 workers in the region during the campaign activity.
In the Albany-Manjimup region, 52 per cent of businesses were found to be non-compliant, with a total of 106 individual breaches identified across 76 businesses.
Thirty-four per cent of businesses audited in the region were not paying their employees correctly, while 28 per cent had record-keeping and payslip breaches.
Back-payments totalling $47,379 were recovered for 147 local workers from 28 businesses.
