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The Fair Work Ombudsman has imposed more than $44,000 in penalties on a Darwin-based construction company that repeatedly failed to properly calculate and back-pay entitlements to a former employee.
The Ombudsman began its investigation into Darwin building company, Kassiou Constructions, after it received a request for assistance from a former worker who had been employed by the company between 2012 and 2021.
A Fair Work inspector then issued a Compliance Notice to Kassiou Constructions in September 2023 after forming a belief that the worker had not been paid the accrued but untaken annual leave entitlements that must be paid at the end of employment.
After the necessary payments were not made, the Federal Circuit and Family Court ordered Kassiou Constructions to calculate and back-pay the worker’s entitlements that were owed to him under the Compliance Notice, plus interest.
Due to these violations, the court most recently imposed a $37,560 penalty against Kaissiou Constructions, and handed a $6,573 penalty to one of the company’s directors, Ilias Kassiou, for his involvement in the contravention.
In his judgment, Judge Anastasis Liveris ruled that Kassiou Constructions’ failure to comply with the Compliance Notice had left the worker “without receipt of any payments for more than four years after his employment ended, and without an expectation that he will receive any payments”.
Judge Liveris said there was a need to impose penalties to deter both the respondents as well as other employers from similar future conduct.
“I consider the circumstances of this matter to be serious. [The worker] was a long-serving employee for Kassiou Constructions, which generally employed a small number of people,” Judge Liveris said.
Fair Work Ombudsman, Anna Booth, said business operators that fail to act on Compliance Notices must be aware they can face penalties in court on top of having to back-pay workers.
“When Compliance Notices are not followed, we will continue to take legal action to protect employees. Employers who fail to act on these notices risk substantial penalties in addition to being ordered to back-pay workers,” she concluded.
The Fair Work Ombudsman said that Kassiou Constructions is currently in liquidation.
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