The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has recovered $358 million for more than 249,000 unpaid workers in the last financial year, including its highest ever from a single legal action.
The FWO hit record annual penalties, in part due to ordering operators of Sushi Bay outlets in New South Wales, Darwin, and Canberra to pay $15.3m for deliberately underpaying 163 workers more than $650,000. This was the FWO’s highest ever penalties in court in a single legal action.
The back-payments and court penalties figures are detailed in the workplace regulator’s annual report.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth says the regulator continues to achieve strong recoveries through its compliance and enforcement approach, and due to its consistent commitment to addressing underpayments by large employers.
“The Fair Work Ombudsman has again helped deliver significant back-payments to workers across the nation, holding employers to account,” says Booth.
“An important element of this has been our clear expectations to large corporates that following workplace laws must be an ongoing priority, and this includes thoroughly fixing up past underpayments as well as improving governance and processes for the future.”
Booth says their investigations and litigations highlights what is at stake if employers aren’t serious about meeting all their workers’ legal entitlements.
“We have also embedded a strategic compliance and enforcement approach that is tailored to the specific circumstances and context of each matter.
“We work with employers and workers to resolve workplace disputes, including encouraging voluntary and guided compliance whenever appropriate.”
The FWO filed 73 liquidations in 2024-25. The workplace regulator also issued 1,220 compliance notices, recovering $8.2 million in unpaid wages for 3,438 workers. These notices, issued by Fair Work Inspectors, are a non-punitive way to require a person to fix a breach. Inspectors also handed out 743 infringement notices (fines) for record-keeping or pay slip breaches, with $838,000 in penalties paid.
Photography by Ivan Samkov / Pexels.
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Maia Hart
