Australian bosses could go to jail for 10 years and be fined $1.65 million if they “deliberately” underpay their workers, as part of new laws that nationally criminalise wage theft from January 1.
The new laws and penalties follow years of underpayment scandals in Australia, with cases at prominent employers including Woolworths, Chatime, Qantas, NAB, BHP, 7-Eleven and the ABC.
Until now, the federal body that investigates wage theft has only been able to go after companies and their directors using civil laws, which don’t come with the threat of jail time.
Now Fair Work will be able to go after them using criminal laws too.
But it will have to prove that the employer intentionally avoided paying a worker appropriate wages and penalties, superannuation or other entitlements.
“This doesn’t include honest mistakes,” a Fair Work spokesperson told ABC News.
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Any individual found guilty could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1.65 million, while liable companies could be fined up to $8.25 million.
The ATO would know, and while they are slow, once it is raised with them if there are any legitimate issues they get there in the end. About 5 years after I left a job I got a letter out of the blue from the ATO saying that they’d chased down a quarter’s worth of super payments that the business didn’t pay when I left.
Perhaps not 15 years later though, but it’s worth a shot.