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A SOUTH Australian transport company is facing enforcement action after having underpaid a number of its employees more than $10,000.
Chryss Enterprises, Managed by Jim Chryssidis, has been operating since 2000 providing transport services for tourists, schools and businesses throughout the state.
The company was formally cautioned 12 months ago by the Fair Work Ombudsman against the misclassification of its workers, after it was discovered five employees had been wrongly classified as independent contractors instead of receiving a wage appropriate for an "employee".
In a recent follow-up investigation, Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James found the company to be in contravention of its formal caution, still underpaying four of its drivers who should have been properly classified as full employees.
The four drivers, aged between 51 and 66, were paid as little as $14.40 an hour when they should have been receiving up to $22.24 for normal hours worked, with total Individual underpayments ranging between $408 and $7707.
Chryss Enterprises was also found have withheld payment of annual leave in one instance.
The workers were underpaid a total of $10,183 between February 2012 and August 2014, a sum which Chryss Enterprises is now required to reimburse by January 2016 in accordance with an enforceable undertaking issued by the Ombudsman.
Other requirements of the undertaking include a full self-audit of driver entitlements from August 2014, a reclassification of all drivers as full employees who must receive appropriate wages and placing a public notice in The Advertiser newspaper detailing all contraventions and actions taken to remedy them.
If the terms of its enforceable undertaking are not met, civil proceedings may ensue against the company.
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