Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman has commenced legal action against the former operators of two restaurants in Brisbane.

Facing the court are Il Roy Pty Ltd, which operated ‘Cha Cha Char’ and ‘Il Centro’ and the company’s sole director and shareholder, Bingqi Zhao.

The regulator investigated after receiving requests for assistance from five workers who were employed at the restaurants in full-time roles for various periods between January 2015 and December 2020. The workers included an office manager, bar manager, restaurant manager and two head chefs.

A Fair Work Inspector issued a Compliance Notice to Il Roy in March 2022 after it believed that all five workers were not paid their accrued but untaken annual leave entitlements at the end of their employment, owed under the Fair Work Act’s National Employment Standards.

It is also alleged that four of the workers were also not paid payment-in-lieu-of-notice-of-termination and redundancy entitlements at the end of their employment. Furthermore, the regulator alleges that the five workers were underpaid a total of AUD 99,132 (USD 64,081).

The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges Il Roy, without reasonable excuse, failed to comply with the compliance notice, which required it to back-pay the workers’ entitlements. It is alleged Zhao was involved in the breach.

The regulator is seeking penalties against Il Roy Pty Ltd and Zhao for allegedly failing to comply with the compliance notice. The company faces a penalty of up to AUD 33,300 (USD 21,525) and Zhao faces a penalty of up to AUD 6,660 (USD 4,305). The regulator is also seeking an order for Il Roy to rectify the alleged underpayments in full, plus interest.