The principal cleaning contractor of Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, as well as a sub-contractor and two individual company directors, were penalised by the court for underpaying their cleaners.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court has imposed a total of $332,964 in penalties, with Quayclean Australia Pty Ltd, the principal cleaning contractor for the stadium, penalised $174,420; Ranvel Pty Ltd, a company formerly subcontracted by Quayclean to provide some of the cleaning services, penalised $114,480; Indika Udara Lokubalasuriya, owner-director of Ranvel penalised $15,552; and Harjot Singh, who was a director of Melbourne-based company Lionheart Workforce Pty Ltd which was also formerly subcontracted by Quayclean, penalised $28,512.
Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Kristen Hannah commented on the decision saying, “We welcome the substantial penalties in this case. We conduct thorough investigations of supply chains to gather the evidence we need and we are prepared to take action against multiple levels of supply chains for non-compliant conduct.”
Hannah added, “Workers employed in the cleaning sector are low-paid, often vulnerable migrant workers with limited awareness of their workplace rights. We treat deliberate underpayments of such workers particularly seriously.”
The investigation found that the 25 affected Etihad Stadium cleaners were underpaid entitlements under the Cleaning Services Award 2010, such as minimum ordinary hourly rates, casual loadings, penalty rates and overtime. Lionheart and Singh paid 11 cleaners flat hourly rates ranging from $7 to $23, resulting in total underpayments of $75,138.26. (Lionheart could not be pursued in court because it went into liquidation in September 2019). Ranvel and Lokubalasuriya paid 14 cleaners a flat rate of $16 per hour, resulting in total underpayments of $24,498.80.
Quayclean was involved as an accessory in most of the underpayment contraventions because the subcontract amounts it paid Ranvel and Lionheart were not sufficient to enable the companies to provide the relevant cleaning services whilst meeting employees’ minimum Award entitlements. All the underpayments were eventually back-paid in full
Judge Caroline Kirton found that all respondents had deliberately contravened workplace laws, noting that Quayclean had admitted knowing the funds it paid Lionheart and Ranvel were insufficient to enable the companies to comply with the Award. In imposing the penalties, she found there was a need for general deterrence and that she was “conscious of the need to ensure that other businesses in the cleaning industry are deterred from engaging in similar conduct”.
