Fast food, restaurants, and cafés face scrutiny from Fair Work Ombudsman
Food outlets in four Australian cities were part of surprise inspections last week by the Fair Work Ombudsman, as the watchdog ramped up compliance checks on record-keeping and payslip obligations.
The inspections targeted 45 food outlets, particularly fast food outlets, restaurants, and cafés, in "cheap eats" havens of Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, and Cairns.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said in a statement the compliance checks were focused on the fast food, restaurants and cafés sector because it has a history of high levels of non-compliance and employs large numbers of young people and migrant workers, who are more likely to be unaware of their workplace rights or unwilling to speak up if something seems wrong.
The fast food, restaurants, and cafés sector made up 25% of all Compliance Notices issued by the FWO in 2023-24 and the regulator recovered $5.6 million for 3,056 underpaid workers in the sector.
According to the FWO, it also based its inspections on anonymous reports and enquiries to the workplace regulator.
Checking business compliance
FWO inspectors checked the businesses' compliance with time and wage records, as well as employee payslips.
"Accurate records and payslips are a crucial 'bedrock' for ensuring employers are paying their employees lawfully for all hours worked," Booth said.
Missing, incorrect, or poorly maintained records and payslips are often indicators of wage underpayments, she added.
"Employers who do not meet their record-keeping and payslip obligations can be fined. Inspectors can also issue Compliance Notices requiring them to backpay wages if we believe that employees have been underpaid," Booth said.
Record-keeping issues that may lead to fines include not issuing payslips or missing payslip content, not keeping particular time and wage records, as well as false or misleading records.
Fines can reach up to $1,890 per contravention for an individual and $9,900 per breach for an organisation.
Last year, the FWO secured a record penalty of $15.3 million against former operations of Sushi Bay outlets in New South Wales, Darwin, and Canberra for underpaying migrant workers a total of $653,129 between February 2016 and January 2020.
