Korean Youths Exploited for Profit, Hit with '13.8 Billion Won Fine Bomb'... Final Chapter of Australian Sushi Restaurant

Many Employees Unpaid Wages at Korean Sushi Chain
Mostly Korean Working Holiday Youths
"Record Highest Fine for Wage Nonpayment"

A Korean-owned sushi chain in Australia was fined approximately 13.8 billion KRW by an Australian court for failing to properly pay wages to its employees.

According to ABC News and others on the 7th (local time), the Australian Federal Court on the 5th imposed fines of 13.7 million AUD (about 12.36 billion KRW) on four affiliated companies of the Australian sushi chain Sushi Bay, and 1.6 million AUD (about 1.44 billion KRW) on the company owner Shin, for failing to properly pay over 650,000 AUD (about 590 million KRW) in wages to 163 employees from February 2016 to January 2020.

The court also ordered the payment of all unpaid wages to the affected employees. The majority of the employees who did not receive proper wages were identified as Koreans under 25 years old working on working holiday or employment visas.

[Image source = Sushibay homepage]

Earlier, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), Australia's workplace regulator, received reports of unpaid wages from two employees who worked at Sushi Bay and conducted an extensive investigation of all stores. Subsequently, the FWO filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that Sushi Bay systematically exploited foreign workers.

According to the FWO, Sushi Bay paid hourly wages in cash without complying with minimum wage laws. It was also found that overtime pay, holiday pay, and annual leave pay were not properly provided. When the restaurant sponsored employment visas, it sometimes reclaimed part of the wages as a fee. To conceal these facts, various records such as pay slips were forged.

Judge Anna Kurtzman described the case as "a brazen but ultimately failed attempt to exploit migrant workers and conceal it," and judged that "an overwhelmingly large number of violations were committed intentionally."

Regarding this, the FWO stated, "This is the highest fine ever related to unpaid wages," explaining that despite Sushi Bay having been fined for similar issues in 2019, the record fine was imposed because the company deliberately and repeatedly exploited vulnerable migrant workers. According to ABC News, all Sushi Bay stores in Australia are currently closed, with only the Sydney store managed by the company liquidator still operating.