Perth restaurant chain Han’s Café collapses with underpaid staff
The management company behind Han’s Café, once Perth’s most successful chain of Asian restaurants, has gone into liquidation facing allegations of unpaid tax, staff underpayments and claims of domestic violence.
Ian and Tram Hoang Han, who had met in a Thai refugee camp, had at one stage created an empire of 20 restaurants.
A dozen of the restaurants still operate.
But the three owned by the founding couple and their management company have been put into liquidation.
At the same time, the Fair Work Ombudsman has begun legal action against the chain, alleging staff at a Rockingham outlet were underpaid almost $28,000.
Federal Court documents show the ombudsman found the couple had underpaid 100 staff about $30,000 over two months in 2014. This was despite the warning in 2013 of the need to comply with minimum award pay rates.
Questioned in court, Mrs Han did not deny failing to pay weekend penalties or maintain proper records.
But she claimed there had been mitigating circumstances.
This included the violence she had suffered at the hands of her husband of 20 years.
Claiming she had been physically and verbally abused at home and at work, she said she had needed hospital treatment.
She said she had also secured an interim violence restraining order against Mr Han, a survivor of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
The couple split in September 2014. She said Mr Han had gone back to Asia in January 2015.
The court heard that Mrs Han had told Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors that she would have to close her business if forced to pay weekend penalty rates.
She claimed they were picking on her when a lot of Asian restaurants operated in the same way.
Justice Michael Barker found Mrs Han was not remorseful and that she had deliberately failed her obligations. He found that her difficult personal circumstances into account did not adequately explain or mitigate her contraventions.
The court fined Han’s two corporate entities $30,000 and Mrs Han was fined $7500.
by Leon Gettler, July 13th 2017
