Fair Work Ombudsman v Sushi Bay Pty Ltd (in liq) (No 3)
Citation: [2024] FCA 869
At a glance
- Penalty
- $15,300,000
What happened
The Sushi Bay group of companies operated sushi restaurants in NSW, the ACT, and the Northern Territory under a director. From February 2016 to January 2020, the companies systematically exploited immigrant workers through false record-keeping, unreasonable wage deduction requirements, and failure to pay minimum award rates, casual loadings, annual leave loadings, overtime rates, penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work, and annual leave entitlements on termination. The Fair Work Ombudsman discovered the contraventions and the companies subsequently entered liquidation.
What was decided
The Court found multiple serious civil remedy contraventions including knowingly creating false records, producing false records to inspectors, unreasonably requiring wage refunds, and systematic underpayment of award entitlements. The director and four corporate entities were ordered to pay substantial pecuniary penalties totalling $15.3 million. The director's penalty of $1.6 million was to be distributed to affected employees as compensation for underpayment. The corporate entities' penalties were to be paid to the Commonwealth, reflecting the gravity and systematic nature of the wage theft.
What it means for employers
Employers must maintain accurate wage records and ensure all employee payments comply with modern award rates, including casual loadings, penalty rates, and leave entitlements. Attempting to recover wages from employees through deductions is unlawful. False record-keeping and misrepresentation to inspectors carry severe financial penalties. Systematic contraventions, especially those knowingly committed, trigger maximum penalty levels.
What it means for employees
Employees at the Sushi Bay restaurants were underpaid across multiple categories: award rates, casual loadings, overtime, and public holiday work. The case demonstrates that courts will intervene to recover lost wages even after business failure. Employees should report wage irregularities to the Fair Work Ombudsman rather than accepting incorrect payments.
Want this applied to your situation?
Reading the decision is free. FairWork Mate goes further — it reads the full case library and applies precedents like this one to your specific facts, citing the cases as it reasons. General information, not a guaranteed outcome or legal advice.
Every statement above is drawn from the published decision. Read the original here:
https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2024/2024fca0869Want more cases like this?
FairWork Mate tracks Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Commission and Federal Court decisions across Australia. The AI advisor answers plain-English questions grounded on the full corpus — awards cited, industry, penalty amounts and affected employee counts — with a citation to the underlying decision on every answer.
Individual case summaries on this site are free. Full-corpus advisor access is a paid product — Business Solo from $99/mo, 50% off your first 3 months for the first 100 signups.
Get notified on new Fair Work cases
Free email alerts when we publish new underpayment decisions, penalty orders, and workplace law updates.
Free forever. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
This summary was drafted from the published decision and reviewed before publishing. It is general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, speak to the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified lawyer. About these summaries & corrections →