‘When will I get my money?’: Wage theft victims yet to see compensation despite court victories

Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman recovered $532 million in stolen wages last financial year, the body has told SBS Chinese, though some members of the Chinese community remain without their compensation, despite winning in court.

Wage theft victims Thieu Khai Chung and Chloe are yet to see compensation after court victories. Source: SBS

When Thieu Khai Chung landed in Perth from Vietnam as a refugee 40 years ago, he could not have known that he would one day end up in court fighting his employer for wage theft.

In 2019, Mr Chung worked with the CGC Stainless Steel Fabrication located at Braybrook, Melbourne, but he says he never received any pay slips so did not realise his employer was not paying him superannuation. His pay dispute escalated and Mr Chung sued his former employer in court.

In 2020, the court ordered CGC Stainless Steel to pay Mr Chung $21,600 in superannuation that was in arrears. However, two years on, Mr Chung said he had not only not yet received the money owed, and as such is struggling to pay his lawyer and other expenses.

Thieu Khai Chung never received his pay slips from his former employee.

“(I) will take it if I can get it back. If not, then forget it,” Mr Chung said. He said he had lost hope of ever seeing the money he is owed.

Public awareness of worker underpayments within the Chinese community was heightened after the 2021 ‘Fun Tea’ bubble tea bar incident, where a female employee was assaulted during a dispute about alleged unpaid wages. Video of the incident went viral on social media and led to a surge in reports of wage exploitation in the Chinese community. Later in November 2021, the operator of the Fun Tea chain of bubble tea stores was accused of underpaying $186,000 to more than 20 employees.

In fact, a 2021 study by Unions NSW, which analysed more than 3000 online job advertisements directed at members of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Nepalese, Korean and Vietnamese-speaking communities revealed that almost nine out of 10 of these job postings offered migrant workers wages below the legal minimum.

According to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), a large percentage of the complaints it receives come from people who are in Australia on visas. This group also accounts for half of all cases that end up in court.

Data provided by the FWO revealed 55 per cent of non-English language reports received by the FWO on its anonymous reporting platform were written in Chinese (38 per cent in simplified Chinese, 17 per cent in traditional Chinese) from 2021 to 2022, while 18 per cent of the anonymous reports involved migrant workers.

“In 2021-22, the FWO recovered a record $532 million in unpaid wages and entitlements for more than 384,000 workers,” a spokesperson for FWO told SBS Chinese. But as the case of Mr Chung shows, a victory in the courts does not necessarily guarantee compensation.

Chloe Chen, a working holiday visa holder in her 20s from China, echoed Mr Chung’s doubts about whether she would ever receive payment, even after the FWO had sent a Compliance Notice to her employer for the arrears in January 2023.

Chloe Chen said the salary she received was not the same as the number on the contract she signed.

From June to September 2022, Ms Chen worked for the Duck Inn, a hotel on Mount Buller, a popular snow resort located 200 kilometres northeast of Melbourne. She claims that although her work contract said she would be paid $5,000 a month, she only received $2,200 a month as The Duck Inn deducted costs, including accommodation, from her wages. In July 2022, Ms Chen submitted an anonymous report to the FWO about her work conditions.

But for Ms Chen, the battle for justice is perhaps just the beginning. “This is my worker’s right,” said Ms Chen. “If the hotel doesn’t pay, no problem. I’ll just continue taking the matter up with Fair Work and take the employer to court. I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m just defending the rights that I am meant to have. I trust that Fair Work’ objective is to protect the interest of workers.”

In January 2023, FWO ordered The Duck Inn to compensate Ms Chen for “unreasonable” deductions from her wages. However, at the time of this publication, Ms Chen says that she has not received any payment from The Duck Inn.

Clifford To, a solicitor in NSW, warned that whether the defendant had "…enough money to repay the amount of the court award is one of the risks that the employees may encounter during wage and entitlement claims.”

Clifford To suggested employees represented themselves in court, considering the expensive cost of hiring a lawyer.

"If (the employer) does not have the money to pay, it is actually a waste of money and energy for (the employees) to go through all the troubles and pay for the legal fee," Mr To said.

Edward Cavanough, director of Policy at The McKell Institute, said that wage exploitation existed wherever money was exchanged across Australia.

"It (wage exploitation) has become so widespread that it has become a business model," he told SBS Chinese in an interview about the case of 'Fun Tea'.

The FWO spokesperson said: "In 2021-22, FWO received a total of $2.7 million in court-ordered fines, of which approximately $1.8 million came from cases involving exploited migrant workers." No data shows how many are still waiting for compensation to be paid like Mr Chung and Ms Chen.

The FWO said people who suspected that their workers’ rights were being exploited could submit a report in English or 16 other languages (including Chinese) on the anonymous reporting page of the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Employers or employees who need direct assistance with issues such as wages or entitlements can visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website or call the Fair Work Hotline on 13 13 94.