A CAFE at Benton Square shopping centre has been fined almost $10,000 after a Fair Work Ombudsman’s audit found junior staff had been underpaid.
Degani Bakery Cafe has agreed to back-pay staff $9375, apologise to them, and display notices at the cafe detailing the breaches on its website.
The underpayments came to light during a self-initiated compliance audit of 14 Degani Australia franchised cafes. The Ombudsman found that 15 staff, including waiters, cooks and four juniors at the Mornington cafe, had been underpaid from September to November, 2016.
The audit found the company paid $18-$21 hourly rates to its casual staff which did not meet casual loadings and penalty rates to which they were entitled under industry awards. One staff member was underpaid $1318 at a flat hourly rate of $20, despite being entitled to base rates, including casual loading, of $23.64, weekend rates of up to $28.37 and public holiday rates of up to $47.28 at the time.
Other issues included not providing meal breaks for employees who worked more than five hours, not rostering on part-time employees for at least three consecutive hours and not paying annual leave loading.
The cafe was said to have fully co-operated with Fair Work inspectors, agreeing to back-pay workers in full and to overhaul its business practices under the terms of an Enforceable Undertaking entered into with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
First published in the Mornington News – 20 February 2018
