Australia’s workplace watchdog the Fair Work Ombudsman has secured a penalty in court against the operator of a business in Queensland, Australia that carries out services including custom fabrication and mobile welding.

The Federal Circuit and Family Court has imposed a AUD 5,000 (2,784) penalty against Jame Robert McIvor, who operates a business trading as Mack Engineering & Site Services. The penalty was imposed in response to McIvor failing to comply with a compliance notice requiring him to calculate and back-pay entitlements to a worker he employed on a casual basis as a welder/labourer for just over two weeks in January 2021.

The court has also ordered McIvor to comply with the compliance notice by back-paying the worker in full, plus superannuation and interest.

The Ombudsmand investigated after receiving a request for assistance from the affected worker.

The notice was issued in May 2021 after a Fair Work inspector formed a belief that the worker was underpaid casual minimum wages, overtime rates and weekend and public holiday penalties owed under the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020.

In imposing the penalty, Judge Salvatore Vasta said that ‘the deterrence factor looms large’.

“In this case it is difficult to imagine a more blatant example of a refusal to comply with the compliance notice. The sum may, in some ways, be seen as a minor amount but it is not a minor amount to the employee,” Vasta said.