18/06/2008

News Item

Holy Grail restaurants fined $30k

Canberra's Holy Grail bar and restaurants have been fined $30,000 for breaching workplace relation laws.

The Federal Magistrates Court imposed the penalty on companies Squaw Valley and Telluride which operate the Holy Grail bar and restaurants in Kingston and Civic.

Squaw Valley and Telluride are both directed by Ian Meldrum.

An investigation in 2006 uncovered 24 breaches of workplace laws and found 141 employees were owed more than $80,000.

The owners were ordered to reimburse the employees.

Ombudsman executive director Michael Campbell says the $30,000 fine was imposed after Holy Grail management failed to comply with the court orders.

He says management abused the rights of workers by underpaying them.

"We think that's a fair penalty in these circumstances," he said.

"The employees that were involved were young and vulnerable employees and these are the kind of employees who can least afford to be underpaid.

"The investigation uncovered some employees were underpaid their general wages, were not paid overtime, were not paid holiday pay, some casual rates were low and the employees did not receive some public holiday weekend rates."

source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/18/2277972.htm?site=idx-act