AUSTRALIA TASMANIA BASED NOODLE SHOP RUN BY COUPLE IS ACCUSED OF UNDER PAYMENT TO ONE CHINESE CHEF ON 457 VISA WITH ALMOST $ 86000 AS HE USED TO WORK FOR 60 YEARS WEEKLY BUT GIVEN SALARY FOR 38 HOURS AND COUPLE MANIPULATION RECORDS AND CHEF KNOWING LITTLE ENGLISH FILED COMPLAINT AND COURT ORDERED COUPLE TO PAY SALARY ARREARS AS WELL FINE OF $ 100,000 January 08, 2015 4:59PM A HUSBAND and wife noodle shop duo could be boxing noodles for years to come after being slapped with a $100,000 fine for underpaying their head chef. Priscilla and David Lam hired the chef on a working visa from China, then forced him to work six days a week, including Saturdays and Sundays, but didn’t pay him for more than a third of that time. In his three years working at Dave’s Noodles the hapless chef, who spoke little English and was reliant on the job to remain in Australia, was forced to work 60 hours a week but paid for just 38 hours. As well as earning significantly less than the minimum hourly rate the chef was also robbed of penalty rates for overtime, night, weekend and public holiday work and didn’t accrue leave. In all he was underpaid a whopping $86,000. The Fair Work Ombudsman launched legal action against the Lams, seeking penalties and a pay back order, after the chef lodged an official complaint. In an amateurish move to try and avoid prosecution the Lams had created false time-and-wages records showing that the chef had worked 38 hours a week and duped him into signing the records every few months telling him they were for immigration purposes. They submitted these records to Fair Work Inspectors but failed to cover up their scam. In her recently published judgment Federal Circuit Court judge Norah Hartnett said while the chef was vulnerable, there was no intention by the Lams to exploit him. “The employee was employed pursuant to a Temporary Work (Skilled) Subclass 457 visa for much of the underpayment period, and accordingly was highly reliant on the Respondents to remain in Australia,” she said. “English is not the employee’s first language, and even after nearly four years working in Australia he still needed an interpreter to make his complaint to the (Ombudsman). “During his employment he was not well placed to inform himself about his minimum legal entitlements or to pursue them. As such, I accept the employee was vulnerable but also accept that he was not treated in any different or singled out way.” Judge Hartnett said the Lams, who still operate the Tasmanian Noodle bar, had borrowed $50,000 to repay their former employee ahead of court proceedings. She ordered they repay the outstanding amount he was underpaid and fined them a total of $100,000.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 05:59:01 +0000
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