Chain folds following assault, wages claims
An Adelaide bubble tea bar where two women were assaulted after one complained about unpaid wages has gone under.
A notice posted to the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission announced that FunTea, also known as the Yuxuan Group Pty Ltd, went into liquidation Nov. 19, with Mark Lieberenz appointed as liquidator, according to a report by The Guardian. The company allegedly went into liquidation owing $186,000 to 20 workers.
During the liquidation, the company’s remaining assets will be sold to cover outstanding costs, including unpaid wages. Workers are treated as priority creditors in this situation, according to The Guardian – but the sale of assets only raises a portion of what’s allegedly owed, if anything at all.
The liquidation announcement comes two months after the Fair Work Ombudsman launched action against the company. It could effectively prevent the recovery of allegedly unpaid wages from the company’s owners.
Accusations that FunTea had underpaid workers first became public in February, when a video of a man slapping a female employee during a dispute about unpaid wages went viral, The Guardian reported. The man, who was later convicted for the assault, was not the woman’s boss or employed by the tea bar.
According to court documents filed by FWO, 20 workers, including the woman in the video, were allegedly paid as little as $10 per hour. The company is reportedly defending the claim.
Jacky Chen, an organiser with the SA Labour Info Hub, told The Guardian that the tea bar employees were “extremely frustrated” because they “had been waiting for a year now.”
Edward Cavanough, director of policy for the McKell Institute, a progressive think tank, told the publication that the situation was “another example of the scales being tipped to the business instead of the worker.”
“This is the risk with all wage theft cases,” Cavanough said. “The business that is [allegedly] culpable and responsible for doing the wrong thing has all of these options at their disposal to avoid their responsibilities. But the workers, at the end of the day, can’t get what they’re owed.”
Dale Beasley, SA Unions secretary, told The Guardian that insecure workers such as those on migrant visas were especially vulnerable to wage theft.
“We need immediate and serious action on wage theft here in South Australia,” Beasley said. “We need expanded powers for courts and tribunals to deal with phoenixing and sham contract arrangements, including power to pursue the individuals responsible. And once and for all we need to make it a criminal offence for an employer to dishonestly, deliberately and systematically steal the wages of an employee.”
A select committee has been examining wage theft in South Australia, according to The Guardian. The committee is expected to deliver its final report this week.
