The ABCC has commenced legal action against New South Wales based company Ground Zero Excavations and Haulage Pty Ltd alleging it failed to comply with a compliance notice requiring it to pay outstanding wages to two employees.
The ABCC investigated the company after the two workers, one a casual plant operator and the other a casual water truck driver, contacted the agency alleging they had not been paid for work they had done.
In its statement of claim, the ABCC alleges that after investigating the employees' complaints it formed a reasonable belief the company had contravened s45 of the Fair Work Act by failing to pay the employees their wages and entitlements in accordance with the Building and Construction General On-Site Award 2020.
The ABCC issued a compliance notice to Ground Zero under s99(2) of the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016 (BCIIP Act).
The compliance notice required the company to identify and calculate the wages and entitlements owed to the employees, pay the employees the amounts owed and then provide reasonable evidence that those steps had been taken.
The ABCC is alleging the company failed to comply with the compliance notice in contravention of s99(7) of the BCIIP Act.
The ABCC further alleges the company's sole director, Mitchell Long, was directly or indirectly knowingly concerned in the company's failure to comply with the compliance notice and also contravened s99(7) of the BCIIP Act.
In addition to seeking court awarded penalties against the company and Mr Long, the ABCC is seeking that the employees are paid their outstanding wages and entitlements along with interest.
The maximum available penalties in this matter are $22,200 for a body corporate and $4,440 for an individual.
Since it was re-established on 2 December 2016 the ABCC has recovered $5.79 million for 9,088 employees.
