The mother of a young waitress who took her own life after enduring persistent harassment by colleagues hopes her story will encourage others to speak out against workplace bullying.

Brodie Panlock, 19, left behind two brothers and her parents when she took her own life in 2006 after enduring persistent bullying by three of her colleagues at Melbourne's Cafe Vamp.

She was spat on and regularly called names such as fat and ugly.

Nicholas Smallwood, 26, Rhys MacAlpine, 28, and Gabriel Toomey, 23, all pleaded guilty to charges under Victoria's Occupational Health and Safety Act and were fined between $10,000 and $45,000 each.

Convictions were recorded for the men.

Cafe Vamp's owner, Marc Luis Da Cruz, was fined $220,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace.

Speaking outside court, Brodie's mother, Rae Panlock, described her daughter as a beautiful girl who was full of compassion.

"She was just my little ray of sunshine and she was really a very compassionate loving kid and a very, very pretty girl," she said.

"[The] things that they said about her, what can you say? It just breaks your heart and as far as I am concerned, they drove her to the edge and they pushed her over.

"They should be in jail. Simple as that."

She says she is happy the case has been taken seriously by WorkCover.

"I am just hoping that now there will be a lot more young girls out there that hopefully will now come forward," she said.

'Poisonous' workplace

Ms Panlock started working as a waitress at Cafe Vamp in Hawthorn in Melbourne's inner-east in 2005.

At the time, aged 18, she was having a sexual relationship with the manager of the cafe, Smallwood.

But that did not stop Smallwood from subjecting her to constant verbal and physical harassment at work, egged on by co-workers MacAlpine and Toomey.

Magistrate Garry Livermore described the atmosphere in the cafe as poisonous.

He said they regularly insulted Ms Panlock by calling her fat, stupid, ugly and a whore. He said they regularly criticised her clothes, jewellery and her haircut.

A co-worker told the court that at one stage she saw MacAlpine holding Ms Panlock while Smallwood poured fish sauce all over her.

The Magistrate said a colleague telling them to let up on the treatment made no difference whatsoever.

The court was told that after Ms Panlock attempted suicide in 2006, Smallwood taunted her that she could not do it properly and put rat poison in her handbag.

The colleague warned him to stop harassing Ms Panlock and said "if you don't, you'll have blood on your hands".

In September 2006, Ms Panlock jumped from an apartment building and died three days later in hospital from head injuries.

In 2009 Smallwood was charged with failing to look after people in the workplace. Sometime after that he moved interstate where he got a job as a waiter.

On Monday the court was told he had since lost his job.

He and his two colleagues, MacAlpine and Toomey, pleaded guilty to charges of failing to look after people in the workplace.

Da Cruz pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace. He is also planning to move interstate and sell the cafe.

MacAlpine wants to become an actor while Toomey is a chef at a restaurant in Collingwood.

Vicious culture

Stan Krpan, the acting executive director of WorkSafe Victoria, says the penalty is significant and sends out a strong message.

"We are hoping that it creates a turning point in relation to this issue. It is a very serious issue - bullying at the workplace," he said.

"The penalties are amongst the highest penalties that we've seen in relation to individuals under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

"Obviously this is a deeply sad and tragic prosecution. It was a very important prosecution for us to take.

"It sends a very clear message to the community that this sort of behaviour is vicious, it shouldn't be tolerated and it won't be tolerated. It is just not acceptable."

He says this case presents the most serious example of workplace bullying.

"The culpability was high. The culture at this workplace was vicious and it wasn't acceptable," he said.

"That is the sort of message that we want to send to the community - that this needs to be stamped out and that it shouldn't be tolerated."