The Federal Court of Australia has imposed a freezing order on the assets of the company, director and business partner behind the Adithya Indian restaurants located in Nowra and Wollongong in the south coast region of New South Wales.
The Federal Court's order to freeze assets worth $450,000 has been made to prevent the frustration of the ongoing court proceedings.
The direction came after Indian national Midhun Basi, a former employee at the restaurant accused the owner of underpaying him by more than $200,000 over a period of less than two years.
In August last year, Mr Basi had told that he was only paid for 38-hour weeks, despite working more than 70 hours. He was on a 457 skilled visa at the time.
Arthur Rorris, Secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, who helped Mr Basi to bring his claim to the court said another former employee of the restaurant is likely to come forward to claim outstanding wages to the tune of a similar amount.
This means that when clubbed together, the company could potentially be liable for nearly $500,000 in underpayment, excluding interest and any other penalties.
“The size of the underpayment alone is likely to reach half a million dollars with another employee also stepping forward to claim a similar amount,” said Mr Rorris who expressed “disappointment” at the level of alleged wage theft.
“That puts Adithya Restaurants and its director and business partners liable to potentially pay a million dollars when fines, interest, and costs are also tallied up,” Mr Rorris added.
Kristian Bolwell, Principal of WorkLawyers who as of now is acting for Mr Basi confirmed to SBS Punjabi that he would also be representing the other worker in court, who is yet to make his claim.
“We are fully committed to achieving real compensation for our clients as they have worked as little more than slaves with the none too subtle threat of deportation used to obtain compliance for around 2 years,” said Mr Bolwell.
The matter will return to the Federal Court on May 1, 2019.
Mr Rorris, meanwhile told SBS Punjabi that "if the owner or his associates would want to argue the case, they would have to do so in the court in the next hearing in May."
