In recent years there has been a wave of wage underpayment scandals revealed by The Age including at some of Australia’s largest employers. Nearly half of restaurant, catering, cafe and fast food businesses surveyed had at least one wage contravention, reports by the Fair Work Ombudsman have found. Jordan Waters worked as a kitchen-hand and waiter for a year at a cafe in Melbourne’s inner-east and was paid as little as $16 an hour and received no penalty rates. He recently won back more than $8000 from his former employer, with legal assistance from the Young Workers Centre. ''You look at your boss; he’s driving around in an expensive BMW and sending all his kids to private schools and living in a huge mansion,'' he said.

''The least he could do is pay me properly.'' Mr Hilakari said Trades Hall had been in talks with Victorian Labor over the issue and was ''reasonably optimistic’’ criminalising wage theft will become an election commitment. ''This is what a good government should do; if they say no, we are going to campaign on it.’’ The former South Australian Labor government took a policy to last month’s election to make wage theft a crime while the NSW Labor opposition is moving in a similar direction. Senior Andrews government insiders have ruled out wage theft legislation this year but have left open the possibility of taking a policy to this year's election.

The government is considering multiple requests from union, business and community lobbies ahead of both the budget and the November poll. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson said employers already faced significant financial penalties for wage underpayment. ''Nobody wins if employees lose their jobs when a business closes because of the size of the fine or because the employer has been imprisoned.’’ ACCI chief executive James Pearson is opposed to making wage underpayment a crime. Credit:Andrew Meares He said the Fair Work system was ‘’highly complex’’ with workplace awards of over 100 pages. That can be challenging for small business to navigate.

Young Workers Centre coordinator Keelia Fitzpatrick said the union campaign will be launched at a conference on wage theft this Friday. Unions engaged law firm Gordon Legal and a barrister to draw up proposed amendments to the Crimes Act that would regard the intentional underpayment of wages a criminal offence. Ms Fitzpatrick said they had legal advice that its amendments would not contradict existing federal workplace laws. They want a special unit in Victoria Police to deal with the issue. Ms Fitzpatrick cited figures from the Fair Work Ombudsman that showed in 2014/15 it received 14,291 allegations relating to underpayment but launched only 42 litigations on the issue. Victorian Industrial Relations minister Natalie Hutchins said in a brief statement the Andrews government was looking at how to deal with the underpayment of wages.

Victorian Industrial Relations minister Natalie Hutchins did not rule out making 'wage theft' a crime. “We take the issue very seriously and are looking at the best way to tackle this growing problem, which particularly affects vulnerable workers.” Michelle has been at her wits end to try to claw back wages and entitlements owed to her 17-year-old son Anthony. Anthony, with his mother Michelle, who is attempting to help the 17-year-old recover lost wages. Credit:Paul Jeffers He was owed at least $1000 in unpaid wages and entitlements, she said, from his time working at a restaurant in Melbourne's outer east. In one week he worked 28 hours but was paid for only 13 hours.

When she contacted the restaurant's owner, she was ignored. The owner did not respond to requests for comment from The Age. He also did not attend a mediation session with the Fair Work Ombudsman, she said. Michelle even called police to ask if it would be OK if she could hand out leaflets at his restaurant highlighting her son’s case (it was). "I haven’t done that yet,’’ she said. She is frustrated with how hard it is to resolve this issue. ''He’s never been late to one shift and this is what happened,’’ she said. ‘’That belongs to Anthony that money, it’s a theft, it should be a crime.’’

Federal Labor workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor said if his party won government, it would ‘’significantly’’ increase civil penalties for intentional underpayment. But it did not support it becoming a criminal offence. ‘’Whilst there are certain extreme forms of conduct by employers that will attract criminal penalties including modern slavery and labour trafficking, the normal course of events is that industrial relations should be in the civil law realm.” Do you know more? Contact us securely via Journotips