The Federal Court has fined a labour hire company and its director more than $75,000 after it underpaid foreign workers.
Four Seasons Workforce failed to pay workers after multiple notices from the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Fair Work is still pursuing a case in the court over the alleged underpayment of two workers at a Halfway Creek farm.
A federal judge says a $75,600 fine for a labour hire company should put any other organisations that might be failing to pay their workers properly on notice.
Four Seasons Workforce and its director Pik Yok Chey were fined in the Federal Court after the firm was found to have failed to comply with two notices issued by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The compliance notices required the company to back-pay entitlements to two migrant workers who it had supplied to pick blueberries on Coffs Harbour region farms.
In his judgment, Judge Robert Cameron said the workers were vulnerable given they were employed as pieceworkers on temporary visas and had limited English skills.
"A penalty should be of a kind that would deter similar contraventions by like-minded persons or organisations," he wrote.
"A failure to comply with a statutory notice is serious."
The Fair Work Ombudsman became aware of Four Seasons Workforce underpaying workers after it received two complaints from Chinese and Japanese backpackers.
