A Melbourne fruit market operator has been slugged with a record $660,000 fine for underpaying an Afghan refugee worker.
The former owner-operator of Sunshine Fruit Market, Abdulrahman Taleb and his company Mhoney, together face what the Fair Work Ombudsman says is a record penalty for underpaying the worker $25,588 over about four months in 2012 and 2013.
In a Federal Circuit Court judgment released on Wednesday, Judge Philip Burchardt called the underpayment "egregious" and said "it gave the respondents an unfair advantage in the competitive retail industry".
"(The worker) was a vulnerable employee in that he was a recent arrival to Australia and totally lacked fluency in English, and could reasonably be understood to be most unlikely to be aware of any entitlements at law," the judge said.
"The underpayments were so significant that the total not paid ... was, in relative terms, enormous for such a short time. Furthermore, for some of the time (he) was simply not paid at all."
"I accept the submission of the (ombudsman) that the way it worked out was that (the worker) was paid wages of between $3.49 and $9.29 per hour."
Judge Burchardt also criticised Mhoney's record keeping, which he said was "chaotic and incomplete", with no play slips created, no superannuation paid and all payments made in cash.
"This was not a properly and lawfully run business," the judge said.
The ombudsman said the worker was not given meal breaks, and sometimes worked more than 12 hours in a row.
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