A Lake Macquarie company and its owner are being pursued in the Federal Court over what the Commonwealth building and construction industry watchdog says is a failure to pay outstanding wages.
The Australian Building and Construction Commission has lodged a statement of claim against Ground Zero Excavations and Haulage Pty Ltd with the Federal Circuit and Family Court in Sydney, accusing the Morisset Park-based company and its sole director Mitchell Long of not paying two casual employees - a plant operator and a water truck driver - for work they had completed in regional NSW.
The ABCC issued a compliance notice to the company in February after the complainants asked the commission for help last July.
The matter was filed with the court last month and the first case management hearing is set for December 9.
When asked the dollar value of the alleged outstanding wages, the ABCC said the compliance notice - to which the company had not complied - required Ground Zero to calculate the unpaid entitlements, which included ordinary hours worked, overtime and living away from home allowance set out by the 2020 award.
In a media release sent out on Tuesday, the ABCC said the commission had investigated the claims of the two complainants and "formed the reasonable belief" that the company had broken Section 45 of the Fair Work Act.
The ABCC said the commission was "seeking court awarded penalties against the company and Mr Long", as well as payment of alleged outstanding wages and entitlements to the two workers - including interest.
Maximum penalties of $22,200 for a body corporate and $4440 for an individual are available in the matter, the commission said yesterday.
The ABCC was stripped of all but bare powers earlier this year in the wake of Labor's federal election win, with the new government saying it plans to defund and disband the watchdog.
