A Sydney-based cleaning company has been fined $447,300 for exploiting 51 workers, some of whom were treated as “slaves”.
The company, Grouped Property Services, has also been ordered to repay over $223,000 in back-pay to 49 employees it exploited between 2011 and 2013.
Many victims of the company were foreign workers on temporary visas, who had limited English skills and were unfamiliar with Australian labour laws.
One local employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told SBS, he worked for the company in good faith.
"I felt sick about the whole thing. I did the best for them and they turned around and slap you in the mouth and say you're a piece of rubbish, forget it, I don't care about you, the law can't protect, no-one can protect you, I'm just going to walk all over you," he said.
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The Federal Court found that the company’s former owner-operator, Rosario Pucci, threatened one Colombian student with deportation, forcibly removed another international student the office, and told an Italian student to “kiss my a**” after a request for unpaid wages.
Federal Court judge Anna Katzmann said that most of the exploited employees were struggling financially.
One employee had been supporting her partner through cancer treatment, another had to leave Australia after being unable to afford a new visa.
“Several had been unemployed for some time before securing work with the company. Some were treated by Grouped Property Services as slaves,” Justice Katzmann said.
“(One employee) was supporting her partner who was undergoing chemotherapy and when Grouped Property Services stopped paying her they struggled to survive.”
Watch: Fair work ombudsman on cleaning company fine
Another student had to quit because he couldn’t afford to renew his car registration to drive to work sites.
Most of the exploited workers were employed as cleaners, but some worked in other roles.
Justice Katzmann described Pucci’s actions as disgraceful, reprehensible and shameful.
The court imposed a personal fine of $74,300 on Pucci for his “calculated attempt” to avoid paying minimum wages and statutory entitlements.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the case was one of the agency’s most complex matters, and involved a sham contracting arrangement.
The scheme, which the court found Pucci was “intimately involved” in, attempted to classify the workers as independent contractors from a shell labour-hire company registered at the same address as Grouped Property Services.
“Overseas workers can be vulnerable if they are not fully aware of their rights or are reluctant to complain, so we treat such cases very seriously,” Ombudsman James said.
“Those rogue employers in Australia who think they can build businesses around the blatant exploitation of vulnerable workers need to get the message that we will pursue you to the full extent of the law, ensure you receive the punishment you deserve and destroy your unlawful business model.”
The successful case comes after the Fair Work Ombudsman reached an agreement with national convenience store operator 7-Eleven after it acknowledged a “culture of underpayment and false records.”
The company made a number of specific promises to the Fair Work Ombudsman after a joint ABC-Fairfax investigation found systemic underpayment of employees, including many international students.
