A Sydney cleaning firm treated some vulnerable foreign workers as “slaves”, the federal court has said, refusing to pay them for months and leaving them to go without furniture, food and critical medical treatment.

The fair work ombudsman has secured a penalty of nearly $450,000 in the federal court against Grouped Property Services (GPS) Pty Ltd, a facility management company whose website boasts as clientele Bunnings Warehouse, Wilson Parking, Goodlife Health Clubs and NSW Ambulance.

The Sydney firm has been penalised $370,000 and ordered to back pay $223,244 to 49 employees it exploited between 2011 and 2013. Rosario Pucci, the former owner-operator of the company and described by the federal court as being “intimately involved” in the exploitation, has been fined a further $74,300.

His brother Enrico Pucci, the company’s current owner and sole director, was fined $3,000 for firing a woman when she asked why she had not been paid.

The court heard workers, most of whom were foreign nationals in Australia on temporary visas, were trapped in a “Kafkaesque” scenario where the brothers kept blaming each other, or “management” for the failure to pay wages.

“Many had limited English language skills and were unlikely to have been familiar with Australian labour laws. Many, if not all, were struggling financially,” Justice Anna Katzmann found.

She said Rosario Pucci’s treatment of workers as “inexcusable… disgraceful … reprehensible … and shameful”. She said neither of the brothers expressed any contrition.

Rosario Pucci threatened one Colombian student with deportation, forcibly removed another student from the GPS offices. An Italian student who asked to be paid outstanding wages was told “kiss my arse”, by Rosario.

“GPS’s response to the employees’ complaints and the application in this court alike could fairly be described as obfuscatory, if not obstructive,” Katzmann said.

“In all the circumstances, the risk that GPS will reoffend is exceedingly high.”

Katzmann said GPS deliberately profited from the exploitation of its workers, some of whom were paid nothing for two months, and who suffered “considerable hardship … severe mental and financial stress”.

“Many had to borrow to meet household expenses. At least one went without food.”

“[One employee] was supporting her partner who was undergoing chemotherapy and when GPS stopped paying her they struggled to survive.”

Other workers struggled to pay bills and rent, another could not afford furniture and had to quit working because he could not drive after his car registration lapsed and he did not have enough money to renew it.

One international student returned home because he could not afford to live in Australia or apply for a new visa.

GPS established a sham labour hire firm through which its workforce would be nominally engaged. Employees were forced to work as “contractors”, allowing the company to avoid its obligations to employees.

“The so-called independent contractors were employees of GPS and that the alleged labour hire arrangement was a sham,” the court found. “GPS did not merely fail to comply with its obligations; it deliberately set out to do so.”

The fair work ombudsman, Natalie James, said the agency had dedicated significant resources to the complex GPS case, which involved “dubious ‘labour hire’ arrangements, corporate structures and sham contracting”. The ombudsman secured obtained court orders in 2014 to freeze the assets of GPS to prevent it from being stripped of assets or placed into liquidation – actions that would frustrate any back-payment orders against the company.

“Those rogue employers in Australia who think they can build business around the blatant exploitation of vulnerable workers need to get the message that we will pursue you to the full extent of the law, ensure you receive the punishment you deserve and destroy your unlawful business model.”

James said the exploitation of visa-holders from non-English-speaking backgrounds had aggravated the Puccis’ offending.

“Overseas workers can be vulnerable if they are not fully aware of their rights or are reluctant to complain, so we treat such cases very seriously,” she said.

“The penalties imposed against this rogue operator are another blow in the fight to stamp out the problem of deliberate exploitation of overseas workers in Australia.”

Calls to the Pucci brothers by the Guardian have not been returned.

National Manager at The Salvation Army’s Freedom Partnership to End Modern Slavery, Jenny Stanger, said the federal court’s decision was demonstration of the need for stronger federal government regulation of labour hire organisations.

“This case is just another reason why we need a strong labour hire regulation, not just in this industry, but in hospitality and horticulture as well, to help address the practice of dodgy subcontractors luring people into exploitative labour conditions, and especially targeting vulnerable individuals.”

Stanger said while civil decision against GPS was welcomed, “it’s concerning that the word ‘slavery’ was used in regards to this case, yet we don’t see any corresponding criminal charges”.



“We have existing applicable criminal offences on the books, and an anti-slavery commissioner could look seriously and independently at victim identification and possible criminal proceedings.”



Stanger told The Guardian an anti-slavery commissioner could also assist in improving co-ordination between agencies involved in combatting slavery to work co-operatively in providing legal, financial, and social support for victims.

There is a growing national attention to the issue of slave labour in Australia and in supply chains making products for the Australian market: a parliamentary inquiry is under way into a Modern Slavery Act, which could include an anti-slavery commissioner, and the ALP this week pledged to enact such legislation.

An estimated 4,300 people are currently held in slavery or slave-like conditions in Australia, according to the Global Slavery Index. Many of those are women trafficked to work in the sex industry, but there are also men and women – often migrants on temporary visas – working in exploitative conditions in the construction, cleaning and food industries.

Two-thirds of the world’s slaves – about 30 million – are estimated to be held in the Asia Pacific, and slave labour is a part of Australian company supply chains.

At the request of the attorney general, George Brandis, a Senate inquiry is currently evaluating the implementation of a Modern Slavery Act, based on the UK’s 2015 legislation, which imposes sentences up to life imprisonment for human trafficking, and reparations paid directly to the victims of slavery.

In Australia to give evidence to the committee last week, the UK’s independent anti-slavery commissioner Kevin Hyland said stronger laws and increased awareness had seen a 77% increase in convictions for slavery and human trafficking.

“We sometimes say this is a hidden crime but actually, once we start looking, it’s not so hidden. Sometimes it’s in our high streets, sometimes it’s in our pockets, on the phone that was manufactured as a result of a child in a mine in India or the Congo.”

The Australian Labor party this week pledged to introduce legislation to prevent slave labour being used in the supply chains of Australian businesses, and to establish an anti-slavery commissioner if it wins the next election.