A former labour hire provider and its manager have been fined over false records linked to workers at a Sunshine Coast strawberry farm.
The Fair Work Ombudsman secured more than $180,000 in court penalties after “an attempt to fraudulently mislead and deceive” a Fair Work inspector.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court imposed a $150,000 penalty against Korserv Pty Ltd, which provided labour hire services to farm operators in Queensland, and a $30,000 penalty against the company’s former manager, Janghwan Choi.
The penalties were imposed after Korserv and Mr Choi admitted to breaching the Fair Work Act by providing false and misleading documents to a Fair Work inspector in December 2023 and January 2024.
The records were provided to the inspector when the Fair Work Ombudsman attempted to conduct an audit of compliance with workplace laws including the pay rates being provided to workers on a strawberry farm in the Glass House Mountains region, as part of a proactive auditing campaign in 2023.
After the farm’s manager informed Fair Work inspectors that it had engaged Korserv to provide labour hire services to the farm, the inspectors requested time and wage records from Korserv.
The falsified documents included pay slips, payment records purportedly from Korserv’s bank account, piecework agreements containing false signatures, and superannuation records each relating to 14 workers engaged at the farm between July and September 2023.
The false information purported to show that Korserv had made a range of payments to the workers, when in fact it had never made any such payments.
Mr Choi subsequently admitted that Korserv had subcontracted two other companies who were responsible for paying the wages of workers at the farm and that he had sent money to those subcontractors to pay the workers.
Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our FREE daily news feed. All it requires is your email at the bottom of this article.
The FWO understands that at least three of the 14 workers on the farm were visa holders.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said knowingly providing false records to Fair Work inspectors was serious conduct that warranted significant penalties.
“The conduct in this case was a blatant breach of workplace laws,” she said.
“Anyone considering providing false or misleading documents to Fair Work Inspectors should be aware that we will take strong action to protect the integrity of our investigations.
“Employers need to be aware that taking action to try to rid the agriculture sector of this sort of behaviour is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman.”
Ms Booth said employers should also be aware that taking action to protect visa holders was a priority for the regulator.
“We treat breaches of workplace laws involving visa holder workers particularly seriously because they can be vulnerable, as they are often unaware of their rights, heavily reliant on their employers or reluctant to complain,” she said.
“Any workers with concerns about their pay or entitlements should contact us for free advice and assistance. They can also contact their union if they are a member.”
Judge Gregory Egan described Korserv’s conduct as “an egregious flouting” of workplace laws.
Judge Egan found that “each category of contravention was an attempt to fraudulently mislead and deceive the Fair Work inspector whose role it was to properly investigate possible contraventions of workplace law”.
His Honour said that due to the “the nature and scale of the duplicity demonstrated on the part of (Korserv and Mr Choi), penalties ought to be imposed which will generally deter any future conduct of a similar nature by others”.
Korserv is no longer operating.
