Brisbane IT consultancy, Extrados Solutions, has been fined $21,420 and ordered to back-pay a young Chinese worker more than $10,000.
The employee, aged in his early 20s, was a Chinese national on a 457 work visa who spoke limited English.
He worked for Extrados Solutions last year.
Extrados Solutions was penalised $17,850 and company director, Peter Johnson, a further $3570.
The Brisbane Federal Circuit Court imposed the penalties following an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The legal proceedings followed a failure by Extrados Solutions and Johnson to comply with a Compliance Notice issued by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The formal notice – one of a number of compliance tools used by the Fair Work Ombudsman - required the company to back-pay the employee who had not been paid wages for work performed.
Judge Michael Jarrett has also ordered the company to back-pay the employee a total of $10,813 in wages and annual leave entitlements owed to him.
Fair Work Ombudsman, Natalie James, said inspectors made extensive efforts to facilitate back-payment of the worker before legal proceedings were commenced.
“This employer is now facing a Court order for back-payment as well as a penalty which could have been avoided if it had co-operated with us in the first instance,” she said.
“The failure to back-pay the outstanding wages is not only a fundamental breach of workplace laws and the employee’s rights, it’s also proven to be a poor business decision.”
