Sushi Bay group fined $13.7 million for underpaying migrant workers

Entities under the Sushi Bay group of companies have been handed a record fine of $13.7 million for underpaying migrant employees.

The Federal Court of Australia issued on Monday penalties of $3.2 million to Sushi Bay, $5.8 million to Sushi Bay ACT, $2.3 million to Auskobay, and $2.4 million to Auskoja.

Its sole director and chief executive, Yi Jeong "Rebecca" Shin, was also fined $1.6 million.

The penalties came after the companies, most of which are now in liquidation, underpaid 163 employees more than $650,000, with underpayments ranging from about $47 to under $84,000.

Judge Anna Katzmann said the companies failed to pay minimum award rates, casual loadings, annual leave loadings, overtime rates, as well as Saturday, Sunday, and public holiday penalty rates.

They also failed to pay annual leave entitlements on termination for accrued but untaken annual leave, as well as unreasonably required employees to return part of their wages to their employer.

"This is yet another case of the exploitation of immigrant workers and a shameless but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to conceal it," Katzmann said in her judgment.

"The nature and gravity of the contravening conduct, the circumstances in which and the period of time over which it occurred, the number and nature of the affected employees, the involvement of senior management, and the absence of any extenuating circumstances all point to the need, as the Ombudsman put it, to send a strong signal to employers in the industry that conduct of this kind is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

Record-high penalties issued

The penalties ordered by Katzmann exceeds the $10.34 million handed to the Commonwealth Bank and CommSec earlier this year for underpaying employees more than $16 million.

"The penalties must be sufficiently high to disabuse them of that notion and make it crystal clear to Ms. Shin and other people and companies who employ staff that contraventions of the kind the respondents committed are both unacceptable and economically irrational," the judge said.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth slammed as "reprehensible" the deliberate and repeated exploitation of workers and said it would not be tolerated in Australia.

"We treat cases involving underpayments, cash back and other record-keeping breaches impacting migrant workers particularly seriously, as we know that they can be vulnerable due to factors such as a lack of awareness of their entitlements or a reluctance to complain," Booth said as quoted by the Australia Associated Press.