Former servo operator fined $38.5k for underpayments

Previous operators of a United Petroleum outlet in South Australia were slapped with a $38,500 penalty from the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) after failing to pay workers annual leave entitlements.

Sai Enterprises, the former operators of a United Petroleum station at Queenstown in Adelaide, was found in breach of workplace laws under the Fair Work Act’s National Employment Standards.

A $35,000 fine was placed on the operator, and a $3,500 penalty was imposed on the outlet’s former manager, Raman Monga. As part of its investigations, the FWO audited Sai Enterprises.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said: “All employers have a responsibility to ensure they pay their staff all lawful entitlements and issue them with pay slips – which are essential to workers understanding if they have been paid correctly.”

In 2021, the regulator found the company had failed to pay three staff members who left, an accrued total of $2,668 in annual leave entitlements.

“It was revealed that these staff members were international students,” said the ombudsman.

A further breach was made by Sai Enterprises when it failed to issue workers with pay slips within one working day of making payment, and “failing to have written agreements for part-time staff”, found the FWO.

“We expect every employer to follow laws requiring them to provide pay slips to their employees within one business day of them being paid,” she said.

Monga was directly involved in the failure to pay annual leave to two of its terminated workers and for breaching pay slip laws for all three workers.

“The affected workers were back paid in full after the FWO started investigating,” FWO said.

Judge Stewart Brown found that penalties needed to be imposed to deter further breaches.

Judge Brown commented on the underpayments and said they “were not trifling amounts for the individuals concerned and each was compelled to wait a significant time for reimbursement”.

“Their prompt provision is essential to ensuring employees know what they have been paid; at what rate; over what period of time; so they can ensure the correctness of what they have been paid,” he added.

“In addition, were it not for the fact of the FWO’s general investigation into United Petroleum outlets, it is unlikely that the shortfall would have ever been detected.”

This litigation is one of five commenced by FWO against former United Petroleum outlet operators, and it involved “audits of 20 United Petroleum-branded outlets across Tasmania, Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia”.

It is a case that also echoed previous HR Leader stories on breaches made by operators of United Petroleum outlets, including the underpayment of staff in Hobart in February and the provision of falsified pay slips to an inspector in Brisbane in October 2024.

FWO reported that it “filed 146 litigations against employers involving visa holder workers, and secured nearly $23 million in penalties in cases that have included visa holder workers, in the seven financial years to June 2024”.

“Employers also need to be aware that taking action to protect migrant workers is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman,” Booth said.