Underpaying employers could face fines of more than $4 million or three times the sum involved, while individuals such as directors and HR managers could face imprisonment and penalties up to $825,000 per breach under further wage theft reforms being considered by the Albanese Government.
A dumpling chain's HR manager was knowingly concerned in its Fair Work Act contraventions and "did not simply act as a conduit", the Federal Court has held in a liability judgment, finding she also instructed and trained a colleague in a payroll scam using both accurate and inaccurate records.
A judge has criticised the FWO for seeking "excessive" penalties against two restaurant businesses and reduced the penalties from the $250,000 the FWO sought to just $32,000 after it emerged that their director is broke and had been contemplating suicide.
A court has fined the director of a Japanese restaurant almost $25,000 after finding that he "reverse engineered" pay records provided to the FWO and asked a shortchanged employee not to "sell me out".
A Federal Court judge has while fining a franchisor almost $500,000 for deliberately underpaying Taiwanese interns speculated that a recent High Court ruling will impel more parties to agree on penalties rather than go to trial, an "unfortunate by-product" being fewer judgments offering "yardsticks" for future cases.
A former economics professor's troubled relationship with workplace laws has continued, after a court accepted that he "actively" managed an underpaying grocery store previously fined for similar breaches.
A court has accepted that it should impose a reduced underpayment penalty on an employer and its director because last year's extended coronavirus lockdown in Melbourne significantly reduced the size and financial resources of the business.
A FWC full bench has upheld a finding that a Toll health and safety representative was not entitled to be paid for attending the disciplinary meetings of another HSR, or grabbing a coffee after, and was after a "commendable" process rightfully sacked for falsifying his timesheets.
A judge who took exception to a business being liquidated during an underpayment case was entitled to impose heavier penalties on the owners than sought by the FWO, an appeal court has found.
