A Perth cleaning company has been smacked with a record-breaking $340,000 fine for underpaying six workers, with the judge saying the business had limited the ability of the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate.

The employees, including five foreign workers, had been employed as cleaners and were underpaid a total of $22,510.

Housekeeping Pty Ltd was fined a total of $286,550 and the business’s manager, Catherine Paino-Povey, was penalised a further $57,310. The total fine of $343,860 was a record for the FWO.

Federal Circuit Court judge Toni Lucev found the underpayments had been deliberate.

“The penalty must be an appropriate level to deter others within the industry and other industries from committing similar breaches of Australian workplace law,” he said.

More at source: Smart Company

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