The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured a $5,328 penalty in court against Diaa Mohamed, who formerly managed the Blue Mist Café in Bankstown.
Mohamed received the penalty after his involvement in failing to comply with a Compliance Notice that required the back-payment of entitlements to a worker who was an international student from the Philippines.
An investigation was conducted after the worker had lodged a request for assistance.
The Compliance Notice was issued to the company Blue Mist Entertainment Pty Ltd in November 2020, after the inspector had formed the belief that the employee had not been paid any wages for seven days of work she performed at the café in July 2020.
It was believed that the worker was owed minimum wages in addition to penalty rates for weekend work under the Restaurant Industry Award 2020.
Blue Mist Entertainment Pty Ltd was placed into liquidation last year preventing Fair Work from securing a penalty against the company and the worker still remains unpaid.
Judge Nicholas Manousaridis found that there was still a need to impose a penalty on Mohamed who continues to hold offices in proprietary companies, and others from failing to comply with Compliance Notices.
“The penalty should be set at a level that should signal not only to employers in the restaurant and café industry, but to all employers that a wilful disregard of a lawfully issued (Compliance) Notice will be met with a significant penalty,” says the Judge.
Image credit: 3yb
