Gold Coast businesses penalised for underpaying workers
Gold Coast workers who had been underpaid for years managed to get their money and entitlements after their case was taken up by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The cases involved two Gold Coast businesses.
They were forced to give their workers $33,000 in backpay for unpaid wages and entitlements.
The businesses had actually underpaid the workers for years.
One of the businesses, a Coolangatta resort gave a kitchen hand and gardener more than $17,000 in backpay.
The two had not only been underpaid for more than four years.
They were also missing out on penalty rates for evening work, weekend and public holiday work, overtime rates. Nor did they get allowances for broken periods of work.
The Fair Work Ombudsman also cracked down on a Southport car rental company.
That company had to pay more than $16,000 to two workers in backpay after it was found that it had illegally paid them a flat rate per job over 16 months.
The company was paying the drivers $15 to $35 per job to move cars from one location to another over a 16 month period.
Under the General Retail Industry Award 2010, the company should have been had the workers on an hourly rate for all hours worked of $23.74 per hour.
That rate increased to $25.64 on Saturdays, $37.98 on Sundays and $52.22 on public holidays.
The businesses avoided enforcement action by the Fair Work Ombudsman by co-operating with Fair Work Inspectors.
They also voluntarily agreed to reimburse the workers, ensuring they would keep operating within the law.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James says small business owners had to abide by the minimum wage rates applicable to their business.
“When we find errors, our preference is to rectify any underpayments as quickly as possible, educate employers about their obligations and assist them to put processes in place to ensure mistakes are not repeated,” Ms James said.
by Leon Gettler, April 18th 2017
