December 15th, 2024Daylesford venues fined, staff underpaid

Owners of two Daylesford hospitality venues have been slapped with fines amounting to $104,000 in the Federal Circuit and Family Court in recent days, after more than 90 staff were underpaid more than $320,000 in total.

On Wednesday December 4 the owners of Daylesford’s Hotel Frangos and Cafe Koukla, Louise Maree Melotte and Travis Francis Melotte received a $95,000 and a $9,000 fine respectively.

The two were fined after Ms Melotte had admitted involvement in underpaying 97 staff a total of $321,202 between May, 2017 and July, 2019.

Most of the underpayments related to 27 full-time employees who were paid salaries not sufficient to cover their minimum entitlements under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010.

The underpaid workers included 15 junior staff members aged between 15 and 20 years at the time – and several visa holders from countries including Armenia, Nepal and Pakistan.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth has welcomed the penalties.

“These penalties and back-pay order send a clear message that all employees must be paid their basic minimum lawful entitlements, and employers who deliberately pay insufficient salaries will be met with enforcement action,” Ms Booth said.

“It is unacceptable that nearly 100 workers were deliberately underpaid.”

“That young and migrant workers were some of those left out of pocket is also concerning, particularly the exploitation of the two cooks who were requested or required to work unreasonable long hours.”