Minister welcomes fine for underpaying Chinese chef

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, has welcomed a $30 000 fine imposed on the former owner of a Canberra restaurant for underpaying a Chinese chef.

The Federal Court in Canberra fined Greenstone Australia Pty Ltd $30 000 and imposed a $4000 fine on director Peisan Guan after an investigation by the Workplace Ombudsman found the chef had been underpaid by $47 000.

Greenstone and Peisan Guan previously ran the Four Rivers Sichuan Chinese Restaurant and had employed the chef on a temporary skilled migration (subclass 457) visa.

Workplace inspectors discovered that the restaurant's owners had failed to pay the chef penalty rates he was entitled to over a 12 month period in 2007.

'The Rudd Government will not tolerate rogue employers and this penalty should send a strong signal that exploitation of migrant workers is unacceptable,' Senator Evans said.

'The vast majority of employers do the right thing but when foreign workers employed on subclass 457 visas are underpaid, it undermines confidence in the program.'

Senator Evans said the number of overseas workers coming to Australia on subclass 457 visas has fallen significantly in 2009 as a result of the slowing economy and reduced demand in the labour market.

New worker protection laws that come into effect in September 2009 will strengthen the integrity of the temporary skilled working visa program by ensuring overseas workers are not exploited.

In addition, changes announced to the subclass 457 visa program in April will ensure that temporary skilled overseas workers are not employed ahead of local workers or used to undermine Australian wages and conditions. The seven key reform measures are:

introducing market salary rates to replace minimum salary levels from September 2009
increasing the minimum salary level for visa holders by 4.1 per cent from 1 July 2009
increasing the English language skills requirements for all chefs and lower skilled occupations
introducing formal trade assessments from 1 July 2009 for all trades and chefs from countries that are not considered low-risk countries
a requirement that employers attest to a strong record of employing local labour and non-discriminatory employment practices
developing formal training benchmarks for sponsors
requiring ASCO 5-7 (lower skilled) occupations to have labour agreements.

See:
Index of Media Releases

URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au /media/media-releases/2009/ce09047.htm
Last update: 03 June 2009 at 16:12 AEST