Amusement operator fined $30,000 following prosecution by Fair Work Ombudsman

In the first action of its kind in Australia, a Gold Coast indoor shooting range has been fined $30,000 for trying to force workers to sign away their penalty rights for overtime, and work on weekends and public holidays.

According to a report at news.com.au, the Federal Court in Brisbane has fined the Australian Shooting Academy (ASA) of Centro Surfers Paradise shopping centre $25,000 while company director and part owner Michael Joseph Murphy has been ordered to pay a further $5,000.

The business was also ordered to pay compensation of more than $7,000 to one worker.

The penalties, the result of a prosecution by the Fair Work Ombudsman, were imposed by Justice John Logan after Murphy admitted he was involved in ASA breaching workplace laws in 2010 when six employees were asked to sign Individual Flexibility Arrangements which removed their entitlement to penalty rates for overtime, weekend and public holiday work.

Five of the six employees ultimately signed the IFA but the judge ruled the adverse action, coercion, undue pressure and duress provisions of workplace laws were breached when one of the employees signed only after he was threatened that there would be no work for him if he did not.

The sixth employee who refused to sign the IFA and was given no further work was awarded $7,146 compensation.

The office of the Fair Work Ombudsman said it is the first time in Australia it had taken legal action over alleged contraventions relating to IFAs.

It is unlawful for employers to force employees to agree to an IFA and it is unlawful to make an IFA a condition of employment.

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