Aug 2nd, 2021
The operator of a Brisbane-based furniture removalist company faces legal action from the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) after an investigation was conducted following complaints made by former employees.
These former casual driver assistants performed work between June and July of 2020. It came to light that one employee had received merely a flat rate of $18 per hour. The FWO concluded that this fell short of their entitlement to the minimum rates for the ordinary hours they worked, as well as their entitlement to a 25% casual loading and overtime rates.
In addition to this, two other workers were not paid at all for the time they performed work, and it was therefore determined that they also were owed the minimum rates for hours performed, casual loading, and overtime rates. Moreover, one of these workers was also entitled to receive payment for a minimum engagement period of 4 hours.
The operator had previously received Compliance Notices that required him to calculate and back-pay the employees their respective entitlements, but the FWO has taken action in the absence of any response, and allegedly no reasonable excuse for failing to do so.
Compliance Notices are issues by inspectors if they form the belief an employer has breached workplace laws. If such a notice is not complied with, a court, such as the Federal Circuit Court, can order a business to pay certain penalties in addition to back-paying workers.
In this situation, these penalties can be up to a maximum of $6, 660 per failure to comply with a Compliance Notice.
A Directions Hearing is set to occur in the Federal Circuit Court in Brisbane on September 7, 2021.
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