The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) says the former owner of the Sunshine Fruit Market has been personally fined $16,000 while his company copped $644,000 in the Federal Circuit Court.
The previous record for a FWO litigation stood at $532,910 after an Albury café owner was docked over exploitation of five workers earlier this year.
The Afghan refugee came to Australia as an asylum seeker after having spent some time at a detention centre, before he gained Australian residency and was released in late 2010.
Two years later he started work stacking fruit and vegetables at the market.
He spoke little English, and ended up being paid nothing for weeks.
The refugee would later receive $10 an hour but his wages were capped at $120 a day, when he should have been paid at least $17 an hour.
The FWO told the court his wages worked out to be about $3.49 and $9.29 an hour.
In total, his employer underpaid him $25,558 for two periods of work, about two months each.
The man was not given meal breaks even though some work hours stretched to 12 hours.
Judge Philip Burchardt said it was clear the owner had been taking advantage of the refugee.
"[The worker] was a vulnerable employee in that he was a recent arrival to Australia and totally lacked fluency in English, and could reasonably be understood to be most unlikely to be aware of any entitlements at law," Judge Burchardt said.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said employers who deliberately exploited vulnerable workers should be on notice.
"We have no sympathy for employers, as in this case, who arrogantly ignore direct advice from my agency about their wage obligations and exploit vulnerable members of the community in order to obtain a commercial advantage."
