Pizza pay deeply panned

THE operators of the Berwick and Pakenham La Porchetta restaurants have been fined nearly $340,000 for underpaying staff over three years following a major investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
In a Federal Circuit Court decision handed down last week, Judge John O’Sullivan took aim at the companies which operate the restaurants – Bound for Glory Enterprises Pty Ltd and Zillion Zenith International Pty Ltd and their owner Ruby Chand.
Staff as young as 13 were underpaid a total of $258,000. Most of the staff were teenage employees.
The court heard that Chand had claimed the employees were given half-priced pizza and soft drink, which was being offset against their wages and entitlements.
“Such a practice belongs in the dark ages,” Judge O’Sullivan said.
The companies were each been fined $139,507.50 and Mr Chand was penalised a further $55,803.
Judge O’Sullivan also ordered the two companies to back-pay more than $79,000 in outstanding entitlements to those employees not yet fully reimbursed.
He said it was important to specifically deter Chand and his companies from further workplace breaches.
“The contraventions themselves and the conduct of the respondents fundamentally hamstrung the ability to confirm the affected employees’ entitlements during the investigation, the co-operation was less than forthcoming,” he said.
The Fair Work Ombudsman began investigating the La Porchetta franchises after receiving a single complaint from a parent of one young staff member.
It subsequently found that 59 employees at Pakenham had been underpaid a total of $130,195 and 52 employees at Berwick had been short-changed $127,824.
The underpayments were also caused by employees being paid flat hourly rates that were below the minimum they were entitled to, apprentices and trainees not being paid for the minimum number of hours they were employed to work and underpayment of leave entitlements.
Underpayment of individual employees ranged from $3 to $25,358.