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[Tempatan] Report: Aussie boss pleads guilty to hiring ‘illegal’ M’sians

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Post time 16-12-2017 10:18 AM | Show all posts |Read mode
PETALING JAYA: The owner of a citrus-packing company in Victoria, Australia yesterday pleaded guilty to having employed four Malaysians who did not have valid working visas.

Sim Fresh Pty Ltd owner Giuseppe Simonetta, 59, told authorities that he was forced to keep the Malaysians in his employment as the company had a shortage of senior staff in 2015, with his mother suffering from a terminal illness and his daughter being pregnant, Sunraysia Daily reported.

The workers had joined the company in 2012, having been introduced to Simonetta by a broker, who is also Malaysian. They were said to have had no work visa and continued to stay illegally in the country after their tourist visa had expired as well.

Sim Fresh is Australia’s third-largest citrus-packing company and a major supplier to supermarket chain, Coles.

According to the Victoria-based publication, Simonetta had kept the identities of the Malaysians a secret by having them use his surname as part of their aliases.

The workers had been sourced through Alfred Kee Yong Siang, a Malaysian labour hire contractor. He had originally told Simonetta that the Malaysians he introduced were all brought in legally under his own labour services company.

However, after two complaints from foreign workers about their low pay were made, the Fair Work Ombudsman stepped in to investigate.

Simonetta told the county court in Mildura, Victoria that following the staff shortage issue arising, he decided to retain the four Malaysians at Sim Fresh because of their command of English, ability to operate machines, and to help train other workers.

His lawyer said that the Malaysian workers had been aware of their visa status, and that Sim Fresh had intended to eventually terminate them.

However, Judge Irene Lawson, who sentenced Simonetta, criticised Simonetta for knowingly breaking the law.

“He breached his own system. He went around it, and it wasn’t just a matter of doing it,” she was quoted as saying by Sunraysia Daily.

Simonetta pleaded guilty to 12 counts of breaking the law under the Migration Act, and will either be fined A$194,000 (RM609,000) or jailed for up to two years.
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