The worker, and his union Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, took meat wholesaler Dick Stone to the Federal Court of Australia, alleging the employer had contravened the Fair Work Act.
The worker had been employed for about three and a half years and worked 50 hours a week, every week, in its establishment at Regents Park in Sydney.
Under this arrangement, the worker, a new immigrant, began his shifts in the middle of the night and frequently did dangerous tasks with knives, large objects, and machinery while extremely tired, according to the union.
The contravening conduct occurred over a period of three years or more. Most of the contraventions were deliberate and senior management was involved.
Dick Stone contended that the contraventions were not intentional or systematic, so they should not result in penalties or significant fines.
The employer argued that these circumstances did not pose any real health and safety dangers, noting that the employee had only experienced four minor injuries in the three years prior to his termination in 2019 and that none of them was brought on by overuse or weariness.
In the hearing, Justice Anna Katzmann found that the employer's demand that the employee put in excessive hours was an intentional breach of the FW Act that occurred over a protracted period of time.
Dick Stone had structured its business so that both the employee and those working on the manufacturing floor worked a 50-hour week over six days.
The court also found the employer failed to provide the employee with a Fair Work Information Statement, and copies of the award and the NES weren't made available.
While the employer did offer an apology, Justice Katzmann noted that it was merely an attempt to shift blame for the contraventions by citing the lack of prior complaints from either the union or the employees and that it “did not indicate any appreciation of the court's finding” that the excessive work requirement was unreasonable.
The evidence revealed that the employer continued to provide employees with a form to indicate whether they wanted to continue working 50 hours over six days every week, or work 38 or 45 hours per week from Monday to Friday.
“I reject the notion that no penalty is warranted or that the penalties should necessarily be low. To the contrary, I am satisfied that there is a need for both specific and general deterrence,” Justice Katzmann said.
“Specific deterrence is warranted, despite Dick Stone’s exemplary record, because it not only did not admit liability but because, even now, it seeks to excuse or minimise its culpability and the evidence does not persuade me that it has learned very much from the litigation or the judgment. Despite the fact that some corrective action has been taken, the risk of recurrence is real. It certainly cannot be discounted.”
The Federal Court ruled that Dick Stone breached multiple Fair Work provisions. It handed down penalties ranging from $3,000 to $30,000 for multiple contraventions (totalling $93,000) and directed the amount be paid to the union.
Read the judgment
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