Australia’s workplace regulator, the Fair Work Ombudsman, has secured an AUD 12,652 (USD 8,108) penalty in court against the former operator of a tiling business in the Central Coast region of New South Wales. 

The Federal Circuit and Family Court enacted the penalty against sole trader Daniel Patrick Sullivan, whose business traded as T for Tiling. Sullivan failed to comply with a compliance notice requiring him to calculate and back-pay entitlements to a worker he employed as a casual tiling labourer between April 2020 and July 2021 and failed  to issue the worker pay slips, according to the ombudsman. 

A worker is a casual employee if, when they start employment, the employment relationship has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work, taking into account several factors, and they’re entitled to a casual loading or specific casual pay rate under an award, registered agreement or employment contract. 

The court has also ordered Sullivan to take the steps that were required to comply with the notice, including calculating and paying the outstanding entitlements to the worker, plus superannuation and interest. 

SIA contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman for further information and contact information for T for Tiling.

Judge Nicholas Manousaridis found that Sullivan’s failure to issue pay slips and comply with the compliance notice was “deliberate” and a “serious disregard” of his obligations under the Fair Work Act. 

Judge Manousaridis found that the amount still owing to the worker was “significant” and that the worker was paid “only around 71% of the amount he ought to have been.” 

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

A fair work inspector issued a compliance notice to Sullivan in July 2022 after Sullivan paid the worker a flat hourly rate of AUD 20 (USD 12.82), which the inspector deemed insufficient to cover the worker’s minimum wages, casual loading, overtime rates and Sunday penalty rates. 

The inspector believed these entitlements were owed under the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2010 and 2020. 

Judge Manousaridis said there was a need to impose a penalty at the “higher end of the scale” to deter Sullivan and other employers “from not complying or considering not to comply” with their obligations under the Fair Work Act.