The former owners of a Melbourne 7-Eleven store will face court charged with allegedly underpaying 12 employees by more than $84,000.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James announced legal action would be taken against Balwyn North husband-and-wife Haiyao Xu and Yiran Gu and their company Hiyi Pty Ltd in relation to a 7-Eleven store on Royal Parade, Parkville.
The Fair Work Ombudsman will allege the couple paid employees, including international students, as little as $11 an hour, and that one worker was short changed $16,500 in the 12 months to September, 2014.
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The Parkville shop was one of 20 7-Eleven outlets targeted by Fair Work inspectors in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane late last year.
Ms Gu and Mr Xu currently own and operate another 7-Eleven store on the corner of Flinders and Spencer Streets in Melbourne’s CBD, which is also under investigation.
7-Eleven is currently the subject of a Fair Work Ombudsman inquiry into alleged systematic underpayments to staff and false record-keeping practises.
Ms Gu and Mr Xu face maximum penalties of up to $10,200 per breach and their company up to $51,000 per contravention.
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It is alleged the 12 casual employees were underpaid a total of $84,047 between September, 2013 and September last year at rates of between $11 and $17.31 an hour.
But Fair Work Ombudsman Ms James said the employees should have received more than $22 for normal hours and up to $37 an hour for shifts incurring penalty rates.
Ms James said the couple allegedly made false entries into the head office payroll system to make it look like that employees had been paid more and worked less.
She said while all but $500 of the wages have been paid, the legal action was initiated because of the alleged deliberate exploitation of vulnerable overseas workers.
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