More than 360 Brisbane food outlet workers have received almost $448,000 in unpaid wages following a Fair Work investigation.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said inspectors conducted surprise investigations at 51 fast food outlets, restaurants and cafés in the southern Brisbane suburbs of Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills, Macgregor and Robertson.
Ms Booth said $447,339 was recovered for 365 workers and more than $162,000 in fines were issued for pay slip and record-keeping breaches.
She said the businesses were targeted for investigation based on FWO intelligence from a range of sources, including anonymous reports.
“The FWO found 44 businesses had breached workplace laws.
“The most common breaches were a failure to pay penalty rates, underpaying minimum wages for ordinary hours and record-keeping breaches.”
Ms Booth said improving compliance in the fast food, restaurants and cafés sector was an ongoing priority for the regulator.
“These disappointing findings in Brisbane are part of a national Food Precincts Program where we’ve often found that low-cost dining comes at the expense of workers’ lawful wages.
“Employers must follow all wage laws, including penalty rates, which generally serve as compensation for those working at times when most people are not.”
Ms Booth said the largest amount recovered from any one business was almost $80,000 for 27 restaurant employees, including nine visa holders.
She said previous audits of Brisbane food outlets have recovered more than $404,000 for 623 underpaid workers; over $309,000 for 369 underpaid workers; and almost $65,000 for 180 underpaid workers.
“Combined with the investigations in Brisbane’s south, more than $1.2 million in wages has been recovered for Brisbane food workers as part of the FWO’s national Food Precincts Program.”
Ms Booth said in 2023–24, the regulator recovered $5.6 million for more than 3000 underpaid fast food outlet, restaurant and café workers nationally.
