Hefty penalty for chocolate cafe manager busted for ‘exploiting’ overseas workers

A GROUP of young, vulnerable foreign workers were ripped off by a whopping $24,575. Now, their ex-manager has had to pay up.

news.com.au January 16, 2018


THE former manager of a popular Gold Coast chocolate cafe chain has been hit with a massive fine after deliberately ripping off foreign workers.

The Fair Work Ombudsman found Steven Chung underpaid 12 employees at the Oliver Brown cafe at Surfers Paradise a combined total of $24,575 between January and September 2015.

Mr Chung, who took over as manager of the cafe on July 11, 2015, was fined $27,200 in the Federal Circuit Court, the Fair Work Ombudsman said today.

Legal proceedings were initiated against both Mr Chung and Oliver Brown Soul Pty Ltd last year for underpaying the workers, many who were young and foreign nationals on visas.

Oliver Brown Soul rectified all underpayments and is now in liquidation so proceedings against the company were stayed, while those against Mr Chung proceeded and a hearing took place on December 4.

Judge Salvatore Vasta said Mr Chung was “seeing what he could get away with” by taking advantage of the workers and that he had “discriminated against a number of the employees, on, it would seem, the basis either of coming from a non-English speaking background, having a visa or their youth”.   

“There doesn’t appear to be any other explanation as to why there were some rates given to some people and other rates to others, except when one looks at the personal and cultural background of the workers,” Judge Vasta said.

“It would seem that a worker on a visa who came from a non-English speaking background was certainly underpaid more than a person who is a permanent resident of this country from an English-speaking background.”

Seven of the exploited workers were foreign nationals, including five employees from Korea.

Four were on 417 working holiday visas, and the rest were on a 457 temporary skilled worker visa, 444 special category visa and a partner visa.

Four of the workers were juniors, including two aged 18, one aged 19 and another aged 20.

One Korean worker was underpaid $9188 after receiving just $10 to $16.48 per hour.

Under the Restaurant Industry Award 2010, the worker was entitled to receive casual rates of up to $23.09 for ordinary hours, $27.71 on weekends and $46.18 on public holidays.

Other staff members were underpaid amounts ranging from $83 to $3839, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman.   

Mr Chung had no legal representation during the proceedings and it is not known where is he now working however, it was confirmed he had paid the penalties imposed on him.


The exploitation occurred at a Gold Coast Oliver Brown cafe.
Mr Chung also failed to issue pay slips to some workers.

Judge Vasta said the underpayments would have had a significant impact on the affected employees.   

“What is significant about this is that all of those employees were, in effect, minimum wage workers,” he said. “For persons who are on the minimum wage, such sums are quite crucial just simply to their existence and, for that reason, actions that result in their not being paid properly cannot be simply dismissed as being ‘minor infractions’.”

Judge Vasta found that if the underpayments had continued for one year, they would have totalled $80,000.

He said he was “not convinced entirely” of Mr Chung’s remorse but noted he had co-operated with the Ombudsman and admitted his actions were wrong.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the case was worrying as it involved the exploitation of young and foreign workers who were particularly vulnerable.

“We treat exploitation of overseas and young workers particularly seriously because they can be especially vulnerable if they are not aware of their rights, have language barriers or are reluctant to complain,” Ms James said.

“Migrant workers make up 6 per cent of the workforce yet they were in involved in 18 per cent of the workplace disputes we assisted with in the last financial year.

“Furthermore, overseas workers were involved in nearly half (49 per cent) of the litigations we filed last year, suggesting the issues they are exposed to in the workplace are at the more serious end of the scale.”

The workers were back paid their unpaid wages late last year.

Oliver Brown has been contacted for comment.