The owners of a Truganina micro-brewery have been ordered to back-pay a worker $20,000 as the result of a Fair Work Ombudsman investigation.
The employee, a Filipino welder working on construction of the brewery, was underpaid $20,260 for work performed between March 2 and May 23 last year.
The Fair Work Ombudsman found that the man was paid nothing for almost half the time he was working at the Truganina site and was also not paid overtime, weekend or public holiday rates, or annual leave entitlements.
Employers Reddot Brewhouse Pty Ltd were found to have made unlawful deductions of more than $3200 from the worker’s salary for superannuation, airfares and a trade recognition certificate.
Reddot co-owner Kah Noe Ng told the Ombudsman he preferred to source workers from overseas because Australian labour was “too expensive”.
Reddot was ordered to apologise to the employee and pay him back all outstanding wages and entitlements.
The company will also make a $500 donation to the Migrante-North Association of Filipino Migrant and Workers Inc to fund education on workplace rights.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said many employers from non-English-speaking backgrounds had little or no understanding of their workplace and employee obligations.
“Migrant employers simply cannot undercut minimum lawful entitlements … based on what they think the job may be worth, what the employee is happy to accept, what other businesses are paying or what the job may pay in their country,” Ms James said.
“There are minimum pay rates, they apply to everyone and they are not negotiable.”
