Former store operators face more than double the owed wages in penalties
The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured $112,985 in penalties against the former operators of three Cash Converters stores in Melbourne for deliberately failing to back-pay seven underpaid workers.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court imposed $94,175 in penalties against SNNB Enterprises Pty Ltd, Taylors Business Pty Ltd, and Yarraville Business Pty Ltd, which operated stores at Epping, Delahey, and Yarraville, respectively. The companies’ sole director, Graeme Grainger, was penalised $18,810.
The penalties followed the companies’ deliberate failure to comply with Compliance Notices requiring them to calculate and back-pay workers’ entitlements totalling $58,605, according to a news release. Individual payments owed to workers ranged from $2,972 to $16,833.
The court ordered the companies to comply with the Compliance Notices, including rectifying any outstanding entitlements plus interest. The three stores have since closed.
It was the second time the Fair Work Ombudsman took legal action against Yarraville Business Pty Ltd, which was penalised $16,000 in 2024 for failing to comply with a previous Compliance Notice.
“When Compliance Notices are not followed, we will continue to take legal action to protect workers’ rights,” Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said.
“The amount the companies were required to pay to workers to comply with the Compliance Notices was significant, but the total penalties in this case are now more than double that amount – sending a clear message that failure to comply has serious consequences.”
The Fair Work Ombudsman launched the investigation after receiving requests for assistance from affected workers. Inspectors issued Compliance Notices between November 2022 and February 2023 after forming a belief the companies had underpaid seven workers employed as store managers, retail employees, and shop assistants.
Inspectors found the companies failed to pay accrued but untaken annual leave at the end of employment and underpaid five workers’ minimum wages for work performed during 2022. The entitlements were owed under the Fair Work Act’s National Employment Standards and the General Retail Industry Award 2020.
Judge Heather Riley described the failure to comply as “deliberate” and said employers must comply with Compliance Notices regardless of company size.
“It is important that there be a message sent to businesses in general and small retail businesses in particular that Compliance Notices are serious and must be complied with,” Riley said.
Riley also rejected Grainger’s claims that he would act differently in future, saying they were not a “genuine or heartfelt expression of remorse … they were just an opportunistic and formulaic use of words”.
