A Sydney agency and its director have been fined more than $14,000 in total after failing to comply with a Fair Work notice following an underpayment of an employee.
A Balmain-based agency and its director have been hit with fines of $12,375 and $2,475, respectively, after failing to comply with a Fair Work order requiring the backpaying of an employee.
Last year, the watchdog launched legal action against Drew and Schofer Real Estate and its sole director, Graeme Ralph Drew, following the underpayment of a previously employed junior worker.
A Fair Work inspector issued a compliance notice to the agency in December 2022 after forming the belief that it had underpaid the 18-year-old staff member, who was employed full-time from July to September 2022.
The company was required to calculate and backpay the worker’s entitlements by the end of January 2023, but was found to have failed to comply.
On two occasions in 2024, Fair Work wrote to Drew and the agency, offering further opportunities to comply with their obligations or to provide a reasonable excuse for non-compliance.
In November that year, Drew entered into a payment plan that required five payments to the employee, as well as applicable superannuation contributions.
Agreed facts stated that Drew only made one late payment of $1,000, reducing the amount owed to the employee to $3,440, but there were no further payments, nor superannuation contributions.
According to court documents, Drew and Schofer Real Estate admitted it had contravened Section 716(5) of the Fair Work Act 2009, while Drew admitted he had been involved in the contravention.
In February this year, Judge Sheila Kaur-Bains said Drew and his agency had been aware of the Compliance Notice but deliberately chose not to act on the orders, disregarding their obligations for more than three years.
“[Drew] continued to advise the FWO that payments were to be made but did not do so, albeit one late payment of $1,000 was made to the employee,” she said.
“As at the date of this judgment, more than three years have passed since the Compliance Notice was required to be complied with.”
In addition to the fines, Drew and his company were ordered to pay the worker the remaining $3,440 in outstanding wages, make superannuation contributions for that amount, and pay $873.71 in interest.
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