Fair Work rolls out fines for sushi cheats
FOUR sushi restaurants on the Gold Coast have been caught in a crackdown by the Fair Work Ombudsman that has recovered almost $800,000 in wages owed to workers.
The independent statutory agency today will release details of an Australia-wide regional audit where inspectors were shocked to find an 87 per cent non-compliance rate by the growing café trade.
The Gold Coast Bulletin can reveal four restaurants on the Glitter Strip and another in Brisbane were checked – all were found to be underpaying workers. Almost $60,000 was owed to 22 staff.
The audits found underpayments at 37 businesses and that 29 businesses had breached record-keeping and pay slip laws.
Inspectors recovered $797,063 for 406 workers related to underpayments concerning minimum ordinary hourly rates, casual loading, penalty rates and overtime.
Nine infringement notices were issued leading to fines of $17,850, along with 15 formal cautions and six compliance notices.
The investigations led to Federal Court hearings regarding the underpayment of young Korean workers and use of false records at outlets in Ballina and Brisbane.
More than half of the dispute lodgements from sushi eateries in the three years to June 2017 involved a visa holder and 39 per cent came from young workers.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the compliance activity followed increased requests for assistance from vulnerable workers.
“Our activity identified that sushi eateries often employ vulnerable workers including young workers, migrant visa holders and those from nonEnglish-speaking backgrounds,” Ms Parker said.
Many sushi restaurant workers were not aware of their workplace rights or were reluctant to complain.
“Although everybody loves cheap sushi, perhaps we should ask ourselves ‘is what I’m paying enough to cover workers’ minimum wages and entitlements?’,” Ms Parker said.
Inspectors were disappointed by the high level of record-keeping breaches and will conduct follow-up checks at non-compliant sushi outlets.