$62,000 payday for visa holder worker after Din Tai Fung lawsuit

Guoyong “Jet” Liu found himself in a tough spot as a visa holder worker in Australia. His pay at restaurant Din Tai Fung seemed far too low, but he needed a job.

“I felt terrible,” he recalled. “I [knew I] should work for the same as Australians. Not a low salary that makes me feel uncomfortable.” 

Low salaries – in fact, what a court would later call “a calculated scheme to rob employees of their hard-earned wages” – resulted in $4 million in penalties imposed against Jet’s employer, an associated company, and the employer’s general manager and HR co-ordinator, after Jet and 16 other workers, mostly migrants from China and Indonesia, were found to have been deliberately underpaid.

The penalties were, at the time, the Fair Work Ombudsman’s second-highest ever secured.

Jet, who worked in the kitchen preparing and cooking food, said that the long hours he was made to work at Din Tai Fung made him “very mentally tired” and “so stressed”.

His son was in his early years of school when Jet worked at the restaurant, and “I was working so many hours at Din Tai Fung that I could not spend much time with him, my wife or my friends. This made me feel very sorry for my family as I would have liked to spend more time with them,” he said.

“I bought an apartment because I thought the company would give us fair conditions. I had less income to pay the mortgage and had to rejig the expenses. It used to be that we would hang out with friends twice a week and get dinner; we had to reduce this.”

Jet, who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as English as a ‘second’ language, wanted to report what was happening “because it felt so unfair to us”.

“They knew the rules and just broke them,” he said. “If we said something about [our] salary, the boss got mad at us and shouted at us sometimes,” he said.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said migrant workers such as Mr Liu were vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace.

“We know visa holders are often heavily reliant on their jobs and can therefore be reluctant to complain if something seems wrong.

“Migrants such as Mr Liu are urged to learn about their minimum wage rights and come forward to the Fair Work Ombudsman whenever they need our free help.

“Mr Liu is right – he should have been paid the same rates as any Australian for every hour he worked. Migrant workers have the same rights at work as any other employees – and employers must meet these rights even if a worker has breached visa conditions.

“Remember – your employer cannot take any adverse action against you, including firing you, because you reach out to the Fair Work Ombudsman for help.

“The law protects you, and there are also protections for your visa when you speak out,” Ms Booth said.

“Protecting vulnerable and migrant workers is an enduring Fair Work Ombudsman priority. Workers like Mr Liu who come to us for help play an important role in allowing us to hold employers to account.

“Sometimes that involves us taking matters to court, but we also often recover back-payments for workers promptly without the need for any litigation.”

The court case, as it related to Jet, covered his employment with DTF (World Square) Pty Ltd in Sydney between July 2014 and May 2018 (he had also worked for the company prior to this period).

As a result of the case, a total of $197,316 in penalties was paid to the FWO in 2024 that has since been paid to the underpaid employees that the FWO has been able to locate. This included $50,588 in wages plus $12,116 in interest for Jet.

“It absolutely helped a lot. I could pay the mortgage for two years,” he said.

“Of course I felt excited. I felt that the Ombudsman is really doing an excellent job for people like us. We are not rich, we don’t have power, we are not in some high position in society. We are regular, normal people.

“When we are treated unfair, we have someone to tell, someone will stand up for us, like the [Fair Work] Ombudsman, awesome. I never expected to get money back but I got it back. It felt fair.”

Jet’s advice to other migrant workers is simple: “The Ombudsman we can trust”. 

You can learn about workplace rights in our Visa holders and migrant workers fact sheet.

Know a workplace not doing the right thing but don’t want to get involved? Report it anonymously – in 16 languages other than English. 

The FWO’s website translator instantly translates information at www.fairwork.gov.au into more than 30 languages other than English. This complements the Fair Work Ombudsman’s professionally translated materials available here.

Protections for eligible visa holders experiencing workplace exploitation have been strengthened through the Australian Government’s Strengthening Reporting Protections Pilot and Workplace Justice Visa Pilot.

The Fair Work Ombudsman filed 146 litigations against employers involving visa holder workers, and secured nearly $23 million in penalties in cases that have included visa holder workers, in the seven financial years to June 2024. 

Workers can use the search function on the FWO’s website to check if amounts are owing to them.

Employers and employees can call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 for free advice and assistance about their rights and obligations in the workplace. A free interpreter service is available on 13 14 50.