The Federal Court has penalised husband-and-wife Vietnamese restaurant operators Viet Quoc Mai and Huong Le more than $802,000. The fine comes after they underpaid migrant workers and forced workers who made mistakes to buy managers and other employees food and beverages, such as bubble tea.
Mai operates Mr Viet shopfronts in Rundle Mall Adelaide and Adelaide Chinatown, and Le manages them. The pair contravened a range of laws, including underpaying their mostly Vietnamese international student worker base. Most of the staff were younger than 25 and working as kitchen attendants, bar staff, and waitstaff and were paid as little as $15 an hour.
Mai and Le underpaid the employees amounts ranging from $75 to $58,592.
Another contravention on the list saw employees being unreasonably required to spend their own money. Mai reportedly had a “strike board system” to punish employees for workplace mistakes. After six strikes, the employers would make the employee buy food and beverages for the bosses and other employees.
Mai also attempted to trick the Fair Work Ombudsman into believing he was back-paying workers by giving one $10,000, before asking the worker to return the money. Justice McDonald called the act a “calculated and dishonest course of conduct”.
Other contraventions included giving false records to Fair Work inspectors; not paying minimum rates, weekend and public holiday loading, and overtime rates; and failing to compensate employees for taking no meal breaks.
“These substantial penalties highlight that exploiting vulnerable migrant workers is particularly reprehensible conduct that will not be tolerated in Australia,” says Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth.
“If you exploit your workers you will be found out and called out. The respondents have been left with court orders to pay more than $800,000 because of their unlawful conduct.
“Among the long list of unacceptable conduct, we take a dim view of trying to trick the regulator into believing there is a good faith attempt to rectify non-compliance, only to force an employee who thought he was getting $10,000 to give it all back.”
The Federal Court has ordered Mai to back-pay $407,546 plus interest and super to the 36 staff he underpaid. The court also imposed a $265k penalty against Mai, and a $130k penalty against Le.
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) also recently penalised the operators of a now-shuttered Melbourne bar, and a closed Melbourne cafe.
FWO also has an online anonymous report tool and information for migrant workers is available on its visa holders and migrants webpage.
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh
Laura Box
