Avinash Pratap Singh, who ran a 7-Eleven fuel outlet in East Brisbane – has been penalised $32,130 and a company he is a director of, S & A Enterprises (QLD) Pty Ltd, has been penalised an additional $160,650 for short-changing overseas workers and creating false records to cover it up.
Mr Singh admitted in court that two Indian international students employed at his outlet were paid flat hourly rates as low as $14.14 an hour.
The legal action initiated by the Fair Work Ombudsman found one employee was underpaid $4439 while the other was underpaid $1154 for their short periods of work in 2014. The underpayments have since been rectified.
Source: Wikipedia
Judge: 'An appalling breach of standards'
The Federal Circuit Court’s Judge Vasta said, “Not only is it blight upon the system for workers to be exploited in this way, it also enables a business such as that of the Respondents to unfairly profit.”
Singh and S & A Enterprises also made false entries into the 7-Eleven head office payroll system and the company knowingly provided false time-and-wage records to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Judge Vasta said the entering of inaccurate hours and pay rates into the payroll system “created records that appeared to show that the employees were paid at the rates of pay prescribed by the modern award, including penalty rates and overtime rates of pay, which actually bore no relation to their hours of work or actual hourly rates”.
The record keeping contraventions were also an “an appalling breach of the standards that are needed for businesses to operate fairly in this country”.
“But not only did that mean that there were false records that were kept, it meant that when the Fair Work Ombudsman wanted those records, they were given false records, which, as I have already pointed out, has meant that the investigation was a lot more arduous and tedious than it should have been,” Judge Vasta said.
In addition to imposing the penalties, Judge Vasta ordered Singh and S & A Enterprises to pay $2747 in Fair Work Ombudsman legal costs.
Source: Public Domain
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said today: “7-Eleven has learnt the hard way what happens when you neglect workplace compliance in your network or supply chain.
“Franchisors must now take reasonable steps to stop non-compliance with work laws in their businesses or risk being found directly liable under the new laws.”
Penalties of up to $630,000 per contravention for a company and $126,000 per contravention for an individual now apply in relation to serious exploitation of workers.
Employers and employees can seek assistance at www.fairwork.gov.au or contact the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94. Small business callers can opt to receive priority service via the Small Business Helpline and a free interpreter service is available on 13 14 50.
