Australian Sikh fined A$57,000 for underpaying Indian student
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 26 May, 2023 11:15 AM
An Australian court has imposed a penalty of more than A$57,000 on a Melbourne-based painting company owned by a Sikh man for breaches affecting an Indian student working for it.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court on Thursday imposed a A$47,952 penalty against the Mehtaab Group, which operates a business trading as Paint Splash, and A$9,590.04 against the company's sole director and shareholder, Vikramjeet Singh Khalsa.
The penalties were secured by Australian regulatory authority, Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), which investigated the case after receiving a request for assistance from the affected Indian.
In June 2021, the FWO found that Mehtaab Group unfairly dismissed the worker, following which it ordered the company to pay the worker $21,491 compensation, plus superannuation, within two weeks.
The company failed to make the payments to the Indian, who was employed by the company for almost a year.
During the investigation, a Fair Work Inspector formed a belief that Mehtaab Group failed to pay the worker's accrued but untaken annual leave entitlements when it dismissed her.
In September 2021, the inspector issued Mehtaab Group with a compliance notice, which required the company to calculate and back-pay any outstanding annual leave entitlements owed to the worker.
The Court found the company breached the Fair Work Act by failing to comply with a Fair Work Commission order to pay A$21,491.17 in compensation to the worker as a result of an unfair dismissal claim, and failing to comply with an FWO compliance notice to pay outstanding annual leave entitlements to the worker.
The penalties were imposed against Khalsa after the court found he was involved in both breaches.
In addition to the penalties, the court ordered Mehtaab Group to pay the outstanding Fair Work Commission order for unfair dismissal compensation, plus superannuation, and to calculate and back-pay the annual leave entitlements owing to the worker.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the regulator was prepared to take action to reinforce the importance of complying with Fair Work Commission orders and FWO compliance notices.
"The Fair Work Ombudsman is prepared to take legal action to ensure that employees receive all compensation and entitlements they are lawfully entitled to. Any employees with concerns about their pay or entitlements should contact the FWO for free advice and assistance."
The FWO has filed 126 litigations involving visa holder workers, and secured more than A$13.4 million in court-ordered penalties in visa holder litigations, in the past five full financial years.
The fast-moving wildfire that began on Friday afternoon near the Yosemite National Park in central California's Mariposa County scorched 18,087 acre (73.2 square km) with 26 per cent containment as of Tuesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Lufthansa said that 92,000 passengers will be affected by the Frankfurt cancellations and 42,000 by the Munich disruption. It said those affected will be contacted Tuesday and rebooked on alternative flights where possible but warned that “the capacities available for this are very limited.”
Health Canada has not recorded a case of the virus in more than 25 years, but infectious disease experts say they always have their "ears up and eyes open for vaccine-preventable illnesses like polio" that continue to circulate elsewhere in the world.
Ishan Wahi, 32, a former product manager at Coinbase Global, stayed in Seattle, Washington, along with his brother Nikhil Wahi, 26. They committed the cryptocurrency crime with Indian-American Sameer Ramani, 33, of Houston, the US Department of Justice said in a statement late on Thursday.
The White House said Biden will work from self-isolation over phone and on Zoom till he tests negative, which could take seven to eight days. Jill Biden, the First Lady, has tested negative. She told reporters that she spoke with her husband in the morning and he is feeling fine. For herself, she said she intends to stay with her schedule.
African officials say they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can't be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.
