Processor fined a ‘poultry’ $24K for underpaying staff

An Adelaide poultry processor and retailer has been fined $24,000 and had his business operations strongly criticised by a Federal Magistrate for knowingly underpaying staff more than $70,000 in wages and superannuation, Fair Work Australia has reported.

Andrew Sitarenos was fined $24,280 by Federal Magistrate Stuart Lindsay, who said Sitarenos has had a “singularly unsuccessful career as a small businessman”, and described the running of his business, Uncle Tom’s Quality Smallgoods, as “chaotic”.

Sitarenos admitted his company underpaid seven staff more than $45,000 in wages and that a further four staff were owed more than $26,000 in superannuation.

Federal Magistrate Lindsay’s 24-page penalty decision was highly critical of the business operation. “Wages were rarely paid on time or in full, record-keeping was haphazard, creditors, including WorkCover, were regularly unpaid and there was difficulty in meeting orders on behalf of clients,” the penalty decision said.

“The picture that emerges ... is of an entrepreneur who was manifestly unable to confront in an orderly and clear and decisive way the chronic cashflow and administrative problems in his business.”

“The conduct was deliberate and extended over a period of a year. The employees affected, with the exception of (one), were unskilled and their income relatively modest,” Lindsay said.

The magistrate said that if not for the authorities intervening, the “chaotic” running of the business would have continued. Sitarenos was accused of exploiting his staff’s loyalty, promising on numerous occasions that they would be paid in full, but failing to deliver on his promises.

Despite claiming he did not have the money to pay out his employees, Sitarenos has started up another business packing tea. Lindsay said the penalty “should serve as a salutatory reminder of the consequences” of his poor management practices.

The Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Mark Scully said that the penalty reinforces the seriousness of deliberately underpaying staff and that the Fair Work Ombudsman will not hesitate to bring company directors to account for their actions when the employing entities are wound up.