The Fair Work Ombudsman is making visits to venues across Melbourne’s south-east this week to ensure operators are complying with workplace regulations.
Around 30 businesses are set to be checked across the suburbs of Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, Carnegie, Glen Huntly, Caulfield, Caulfield East, Elsternwick, and Clayton.
The checks come after Fair Work received tip-offs from a range of sources that businesses may be underpaying employees.
The Fair Work inspectors will be requesting records and speaking with business owners, managers, and employees.
The inspectors will be looking for unlawfully low flat rates; non-existent or inaccurate payslips; deliberately falsified time and wage records; unpaid hours of work; late payments; unpaid penalty rates; unauthorised deductions; and adverse action such as being treated unfairly for raising workplace issues.
“Inspectors in south-east Melbourne are knocking on doors this week, and they will speak with employees and hold employers to account if they are not meeting their obligations,” says Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Kristen Hannah.
“We know this sector engages many young workers and visa holders who can be vulnerable, as they are often unaware of their workplace rights and unwilling to speak up.”
The checks are part of Fair Work’s national program which has previously covered areas such as Melbourne CBD’s Degraves Street and Hardware Lane, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Darwin, Gold Coast, Perth, and Newcastle.
So far the Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered more than $680,000 in unpaid wages for fast food, restaurant, and café sector workers in Melbourne’s inner south and inner west.