Fine to wipe smile off airport cab owner's face

Date
    July 29, 2013


Happy Cabby: Fined $334,000.      

With broad grin and his thumbs up, the owner of Newcastle-based airport shuttle service Happy Cabby looks every bit the part on his company's website.

But Graeme Paff has less to smile about after Happy Cabby Pty Ltd was fined $286,704 and he was fined an additional $47,748 by the Fair Work Ombudsman for underpaying seven employees more than $26,000. This is the biggest fine that has ever been handed down by the Fair Work Ombudsman legal action in NSW.

For 11 months during 2011 the seven Happy Cabby drivers transported passengers to and from Newcastle and Sydney's airports for a fixed rate of $170 per run, regardless of whether it was a weekend or the time of day.

The court documents showed the drivers should have been paid an award rate of up to $17.98 an hour as employees. Instead, they were being paid as independent contractors which meant they were not paid for overtime, weekend rates, public holidays or early or late shifts.      


Nor were their hours logged, or how long they waited at the airport for passengers. Judge Rolf Driver said Mr Paff's refusal to pay the correct wages, even after a letter of caution from the ombudsman, was ''wilful blindness''.

''There is a well-established link between fatigue and poor road safety,'' he said. ''As a result, there is significant public interest in keeping track of the hours worked by drivers of public vehicles to ensure they don't undertake excessive shift lengths and are granted appropriate breaks to ensure they are alert and responsive when on the road."

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the case highlighted how serious ''sham contracting'' is, as it led to employees being denied workplace rights and entitlements.      


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fine-to-wipe-smile-off-airport-cab-owners-face-20130728-2qsnu.html#ixzz2aNJ6DbP1