Sunshine Fruit Market former owner fined for underpaying Afghan refugee
The former owner of a Melbourne fruit shop has been handed a record fine for underpaying an Afghan refugee who went weeks without wages. Fair Work Australia fined Abdulrahman Taleb, the former owner and operator of Sunshine Fruit Market in Sunshine, about $16,000 and his company $644,000 for deliberately ignoring warnings about pay rates and withholding pay. The Federal Circuit Court found the worker...was paid nothing for a number of weeks in 2012...Fair Work Australia said the worker was underpaid a total of $25,588 for two separate periods in 2012 and 2013. He was also not provided with the required meal breaks...The punishment was a record for the Fair Work Ombudsman...Judge Burchardt said the business was not lawfully run, with all wages made in cash and the company in breach of a number of workplace regulations...