Latest news with #workerrights
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Benalla business fined $255k for providing farm workers without labour hire licence
A regional Victorian horticulture company and two individuals at the business have been fined a quarter of a million dollars for breaching labour laws. The Supreme Court of Victoria found Cameron Workforce in Benalla contravened state labour laws by providing workers without a labour hire licence. The workers picked grapes and chestnuts on several farms in the Benalla region. The court imposed a $200,000 penalty on the business. It also ordered a company director to pay a $40,000 penalty, and another individual was fined $15,000 for their conduct. The hefty financial penalties come after the Labour Hire Authority (LHA) launched an investigation into overcrowded worker accommodation. The court found workers were housed in overcrowded and substandard housing owned by a company director. It found the business failed to provide workers with a number of entitlements, including written contracts or pay slips. Workers were not provided a minimum hourly rate under the industry award or superannuation contributions, and had their income tax withheld from wages. The court's findings and the financial penalty come after the company's bank account was frozen in 2023 following earlier court action taken by the LHA. The company had agreed not to provide labour hire without a licence. The authority said given the defendant's non-compliance with a range of laws, they would make referrals to other relevant regulators. Labour hire licensing commissioner Steve Dargavel said labour hire workers in the horticulture industry were among the state's most vulnerable. "The industry is a key focus for our expanded compliance and enforcement program," he said. "LHA will use all the tools at its disposal to remove exploitative businesses from the labour hire industry."
The Independent
11-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Just 21 companies prosecuted in 15 years for not paying minimum wage
Just 21 companies have been prosecuted for not paying the minimum wage in 15 years, shock new figures show. Experts said the small numbers 'emboldened' rogue employers who paid workers far less than they were due as ministers were warned to get a grip of the problem, amid claims it was hampering economic growth and increasing the burgeoning welfare bill. Between 2008 and 2023, only 21 employers were successfully prosecuted for underpaying the minimum wage, with an additional case accepting a caution, according to official figures from the Department for Business and Trade. Ministers say criminal prosecution is reserved for the most serious cases, which involve deliberate underpayment or reckless pay practices. These are usually where there is a wider public interest, or where employers are persistently non-compliant or refuse to cooperate with HMRC, they say. Last year 524 businesses were 'named and shamed' for failing to pay the minimum wage, leaving more than 172,000 workers out of pocket, and ordered to repay workers nearly £16 million, plus an additional financial penalty. But Labour peer Lord Sikka, emeritus professor of accounting at the University of Essex, described those punishments as 'puny' and called for more companies to be prosecuted. The figures on prosecutions were revealed by minister Baroness Jones of Whitchurch in response to a question from Lord Sikka. He told The Independent: 'Our enforcement is incredibly weak. 'I think this is part of the British disease where the law is not really enforced, because they do not employ enough enforcers. It really then emboldens rogue employers because they can then game the system. And every year hundreds of thousands of workers are denied the minimum wage. He called for more prosecutions and said the penalty for not paying the minimum wage 'should at least equal the remuneration of the company board. The larger the company the bigger the penalty'. He added that a failure to pay the minimum wage, brought in the Labour prime minister Tony Blair has an impact 'at many levels of the economy. It could boost growth and reduce the welfare budget - if people are earning more they have to claim less welfare.'
