An Indian-origin businessman has been fined a record $126,540 for exploitation and underpaying migrant workers
Bijal Girish Sheth of Brisclean Pty Ltd, a cleaning company has been slapped with the fine in addition to being ordered to back-pay the exploited workers almost $60,000 by the Federal Circuit Court.
According to Fair Work Ombudsman, Sheth breached sham contracting laws by deliberately misclassifying four employees as independent contractors and underpaying them a total of $59,878 between August 2012 and December 2014.
The workers were underpaid individual amounts of $26,492, $22,545, $6679 and $4162.
Sheth’s company paid them flat rates as low as $17 an hour and did not pay them at all for some work performed.
The five affected workers - including two Indian visa-holders and three immigrants who are now permanent residents - were all from non-English speaking backgrounds.
The exploitation of the workers occurred despite the Fair Work Ombudsman having previously cautioned Sheth and his company about sham contracting and having investigated 15 previous underpayment allegations against them.
Brisclean could not be pursued in Court after it was placed into administration last year – but the Fair Work Ombudsman used the accessorial liability provisions of the Fair Work Act to take legal action against Sheth.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James says the outcome of the matter serves as a warning to the minority of rogue operators in Australia that steps will be taken to hold them personally liable if they are involved in exploiting workers.
“Any rogue business operator who thinks they can short-change workers and get away with it by shutting their company down should think again.
“We will seek to hold you to account at every available opportunity and you should be aware that we treat exploitation of vulnerable, migrant workers particularly seriously,” Ms. James said.
It is believed Sheth is now operating his Brisbane cleaning business under a new corporate entity and the Fair Work Ombudsman will refer the matter to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The Court has ordered that part of the penalty imposed on Sheth be paid to the workers to rectify the underpayments if Sheth does not comply with the back-pay Order.
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