悉尼某老闆拒發聖誕工資被罰

A Sydney boss deliberately refused to pay five of his staff their Christmas wages, despite pleas from one long-serving worker that he would not be able to buy presents for his children.

Printing company director Robert Michael Francis was begged by a long-serving employee: "I need to be able to get my kids Christmas presents or they're not going to have a Christmas morning."

Mr Francis replied: "Well I'm not getting any Christmas presents either you know. If you don't like it, then leave."

But it turned out it was the Federal Magistrates' Court that didn't like it - fining Mr Francis $8000 for refusing to give the worker and his four colleagues $55,000 after his company Beaver Press went into administration.

The Fair Work Ombudsman took action against Mr Francis after he got his company off the hook by placing it into voluntary administration.

In a judgment handed down this week, federal magistrate Matthew Smith specifically highlighted the evidence of an employee who had worked for Beaver Press for 21 years, who was told by Mr Francis to leave if he didn't like the fact he was not getting his back pay. Mr Francis used the same line to other employees.

The court was told that the previous month, Mr Francis had informed a staff meeting at his Chippendale factory: "People owe me money. I'm waiting on cheques to come in. Once that's happened, I'll pay a couple of people their wages. If you don't like that, you can leave."

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson told The Daily Telegraph it was vital his office pursued and prosecuted matters such as these.

"It is important for us to take action against those companies and individuals who show little regard for employees' lawful workplace rights," Mr Wilson said.悉尼一位老闆近日因故意拒付五位員工的聖誕節工資被罰。此前他不顧一位老員工的懇求，因爲這樣這位員工將無法給自己的孩子買聖誕禮物了。

這位老員工哀求印刷公司董事長羅伯特•邁克爾•弗朗西斯說：“我需要錢給我的孩子買聖誕禮物，否則他們不會擁有一個快樂的聖誕早晨。”

弗朗西斯回覆說：“你知道，我也不會得到什麼聖誕禮物。如果你不喜歡這樣，那就走人。”

但結果，聯邦治安法庭卻不喜歡這種做法。弗朗西斯因在其公司Beaver Press進入自願託管後拒絕支付這名員工及其4位同事5.5萬美元薪水，而被判罰款八千美元。

公平工作調查專員對弗朗西斯提起訴訟。此前，他的公司進入自願託管，並因此擺脫了困境。

在本週宣佈的判決中，聯邦地方法官馬修•史密斯特別強調了這一證據，一名爲Beaver Press公司工作了21年的員工被弗朗西斯告知如果不願接受工資遭拖欠這一事實，就可以走人。弗朗西斯對其他員工也說了同樣的話。

法庭還獲悉，弗朗西斯上月還在其齊本德爾工廠的員工會議上說：“人們欠我錢，我在等支票進賬。一旦有錢了，我纔會向幾位員工支付工資。如果你們不喜歡，那就走人。”

公平工作調查專員尼古拉斯•威爾森告訴《每日電訊報》，他們所在的機構追蹤並起訴類似案件，這很重要。

威爾森說：“對這些毫不考慮員工合法工作權利的公司和個人提起訴訟對我們來說很重要。”