19/11/2019
Know your obligations as an employer is very important! Don’t wait until you get fine.
Employers cannot pay apprentice rates without a registered apprenticeship agreement in place.
Following our court action, a Victorian plumber and his company has been fined $151,200 for deliberately underpaying a young worker. It’s the second time we’ve taken this company to court for similar conduct, bringing total penalties to over $270,000.
In this case, the court found that the 22-year-old was underpaid for about six weeks’ work after being paid as a third-year apprentice despite not being signed up to an apprenticeship.
Without a formal apprenticeship agreement, the employee was entitled to be paid under the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award 2010, but was underpaid minimum rates for ordinary hours, overtime pay, various allowances and leave entitlements, and termination payments.
The company also provided Fair Work Inspectors with a falsified employer apprenticeship document and falsified time-and-wages records that purported to show the employee was paid higher rates than he actually was. The Judge said the respondents’ conduct was ‘deliberate and exploitative’.
We have no tolerance for employers who provide false records to inspectors or repeatedly breach workplace laws, particularly when it involves the entitlements of young workers, who can be vulnerable if in their first job and they are unaware of their rights at work.
Total underpayments were $4,035, relating to a period between July and September 2017. The company also failed to pay $570 in superannuation. Both amounts have been rectified.
Read the full story: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media-releases/2019-media-releases/november-2019/20191119-pulis-plumbing-penalty