Unpaid interns land Melbourne businesswoman in federal court

Aisha Dow
August 26, 2014
The Age

A Melbourne businesswoman is being taken to the Federal Court over claims she owes thousands of dollars to her former interns, who she later attempted to sack and then re-hire as independent contractors.
Naomi-Jayne Aldred owned and directed marketing company Nexus Coaching Group, which went into liquidation last year.
She is now being pursued by the Fair Work Ombudsman for more $10,000 in wages, amid allegations she paid a number of female staff less than the minimum wage and failed to honour overtime and annual leave entitlements.
Nexus Coaching Group allegedly advertised for an unpaid intern in 2012, spruiking the job as an opportunity for someone to break into the marketing industry.
But the successful applicant, a Melbourne graphic design graduate, 22, and an international student from Thailand, 30, were never paid for the 80 to 90 hours they worked during the internship, according to documents lodged in the Federal Circuit Court.
While the two women were later made employees of the company, it is alleged the pair and a 25-year-old receptionist continued to be underpaid the minimum wage by a combined total of almost $7000.
The ombudsman also claim that Ms Aldred breeched sham contracting laws in April last year, when she told the three employees they would be employed as independent contractors, “doing the same or substantially the same work” as they did as an employee.
The women all rejected the offer and, apart from one casual shift, were offered no further work.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James has warned employers that they risk breaching workplace laws if they use unpaid work schemes as a source of labour.
She said Ms Aldred still had not repaid all the money she allegedly owed the young workers and had not cooperated fully with the investigation.
“It is also of concern that after placing Nexus Coaching into liquidation, Ms Aldred is continuing to operate a marketing business in Melbourne through a different corporate entity and continues to employ workers,” Ms James said.
Ms Aldred registered as the director of “Hubba Marketing” in October last year, however the telephone number listed on the advertising agency’s website had been disconnected or was incorrect on Monday.
The legal action comes after a major ombudsman report into unpaid work, internships and trials found that the number of people complaining to the workplace watchdog about having to work without pay had almost doubled in the past year.
It is not always illegal to host interns without paying them. For example genuine placements organised by universities, as a requirement to a course, can be lawfully unpaid. However the ombudsman says there is a difference between a genuine opportunity to learn and being taken advantage of.
“Our view is that workers themselves can help determine which it is, by asking themselves questions such as who is getting more benefit out of the relationship, me or the company?”
Melbourne media company Crocmedia is also facing court over allegations it underpaid two radio producers more than $22,000, including one who was not paid at all for seven months.
In a statement of claim lodged with the court, the ombudsman claims the two workers were wrongly classified as volunteers or contractors, when they should have been paid as casual employees.
Crocmedia has since paid the workers the money they were allegedly owned.
With Nick Toscano
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