The Fair Work Ombudsman has signed an Enforceable Undertaking with the operator of a Melbourne restaurant which has back-paid more than $194,000 to 38 workers, including visa holders.
The undertaking has been made by The Luck Bird Pty Ltd, trading as Carlucci's Restaurant of Templestowe.
It commits the employer to improve its compliance practices, which includes new systems and processes to meet its obligations under the relevant award and the Fair Work Act.
The FWO identified the underpayments during its investigation that followed a surprise inspection of the Italian restaurant in 2024 as part of wider inspections of food precincts businesses in the north-eastern suburbs.
The underpaid employees were both kitchen and front-of-house staff including wait staff, cooks and kitchen attendants.
Across all the employees, the lowest back payment was $189 and the highest was $20,042. The five impacted visa holders, from Nepal and India, were underpaid between $1,264 and $20,042.
Seven of the workers were juniors, aged as young as 15, who were underpaid between $305 and $8,754.
The Carlucci's underpayments that the regulator identified occurred between June 2023 and July 2025. The employer had paid flat rates that they incorrectly believed were enough to cover all entitlements, including penalties and overtime.
This approach led to breaches of the Restaurant Industry Award 2020, resulting in the underpayments of minimum hourly rates, penalty rates, overtime rates, annual leave loading and casual loading. The employer also failed to pay annual leave loading on termination.
Carlucci's has rectified the $194,011 underpayments in full, made up of $173,224 in wages and $20,787 in superannuation. It has also put in place systems and processes to prevent further underpayments.
An Enforceable Undertaking was considered appropriate because of Carlucci's cooperation with the FWO in its investigation, the full back-payments, and the measures put in place to prevent future breaches.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said paying flat rates and hoping they were high enough wasn't good enough.
"We expect all employers to meet all their obligations under any relevant award and the Fair Work Act. Flat hourly rates of pay can commonly fail to meet hardworking employees' full range of entitlements.
"Penalty rates, for example, are important legal entitlements to compensate staff working often unsociable hours when most others are not."
"We welcome the employer's back-payments of all impacted staff and their commitments to improve their processes so that there is ongoing compliance in the future.
"This includes their commissioning of an independent audit of their current compliance, and creating a Restaurant Industry Award training document for relevant payroll and management staff.
"Improving compliance in the fast food, restaurants and cafés sector is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman. This sector hires a lot of visa holder and young workers, who can be vulnerable.
"We encourage employers to take advantage of the free tools and resources we offer via fairwork.gov.au, the Fair Work Infoline and the Employer Advisory Service (for small businesses) to get wages right," Ms Booth said.
Under the EU with the Fair Work Ombudsman, The Luck Bird Pty Ltd has agreed to:
- commission, at its own cost, at least one independent audit to check current compliance with the Fair Work Act and the Award and fix any underpayments found;
- write to all current and former underpaid employees to tell them about the EU and express their regret;
- report to the Fair Work Ombudsman about new systems and processes put in place to ensure future compliance with workplace laws;
- create and implement a FWO-approved Restaurant Industry Award training document for all payroll and management employees;
- introduce paid monthly 'toolbox' meetings with its employees to provide updates and an opportunity for employees to voice their views or concerns about employment conditions; and
- operate an email inbox to take enquiries about entitlements, underpayments or related concerns, and tell the FWO how it has responded.
The FWO's Small Business Showcase has resources for small business employers.
Small businesses can audit their own compliance with their obligations with this checklist.
The FWO also has an Employer Advisory Service which provides small business employers with free, customised advice on employee pay and entitlements.
