Overseas worker underpaid $45k in Toowoomba Chinese Restaurant

The owner of a regional Queensland restaurant has apologised to and backpaid an overseas worker who was underpaid more than $45,000 in little over a year.

The Malaysian worker was recruited as a restaurant manager but was employed as a chef at Toowoomba's Ni Hao Chinese Restaurant, where he was paid as little as $617 a week before he contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman.

He regularly worked seven days a week for about $600 and contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman with payment records from November 2013 to January this year.

The Ombudsman found he should have been paid $98,482 instead of the $52,678 he actually received between November 2013 and January 2015, with the bulk of the underpayment for unpaid overtime.

He was short-changed his hourly rate, overtime, penalty rates and annual leave entitlements.

The restaurant owner has signed an 'enforceable undertaking' which is aimed at behavioural change and future compliance with workplace laws.

The owner has fully reimbursed his former employee and provided a written apology expressing "sincere regret" for the conduct, Fair Work said.

Sources:
Brisbane Times, 3^rd December 2015
ABC News, Ellie Sibson, 3^rd December 2015