Canberra café owner hit with $90K workplace harassment bill
Image: Cafe Capital Grind
A Canberra café owner has been ordered to pay $90,000 in penalties and compensation following a sexual harassment incident involving a young female employee, marking the first ruling under Australia's updated Fair Work Act provisions targeting workplace harassment.
Cheenu Kehal, owner of Cafe Capital Grind in Canberra, admitted to sexually harassing a 23-year-old Colombian migrant worker while she was washing dishes on shift. The Federal Circuit Court upheld the penalties after finding Kehal had also been underpaying the casual waitress and concealing those underpayments through falsified pay records.
The case is the first decided under the Fair Work Act's workplace sexual harassment prohibition, which took effect in 2023 as an alternative legal pathway to traditional anti-discrimination proceedings.
According to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Judge Gavin Mansfield found that Kehal had deliberately targeted a vulnerable worker, stating he "sought to leverage that authority in combination with the [worker's] vulnerabilities, particularly by holding out a financial gain to the worker," adding that "the only inference available on the evidence is that he engaged in the behaviour for personal gratification."
The court heard the employee gave unchallenged evidence of the incident, after which Kehal sent repeated messages of apology. The AFR reports he wrote that he was "extremely sorry I did not mean that" and "trust me … won't ever happan [sic] again … i sware [sic] on my kids," before asking whether she intended to tell his wife or keep it "a secret."
The $50,000 awarded for hurt and humiliation was described by lawyers as sitting at the higher end of the scale. Baker McKenzie employment law partner Michael Michalandos said the outcome carried weight for the industry: "What weighed heavily was this was a young and vulnerable employee – it should be seen as a strong message to employers that the courts will give significant amounts of money for pain and suffering."
Kehal admitted the claims in full on the day of the hearing. The café entered liquidation the following week. In addition to the harassment compensation, he was ordered to pay $9,390 in Fair Work penalties and $30,000 for underpayment breaches — all to be paid personally to the former employee.
The ruling is expected to serve as a significant reference point for hospitality operators on their legal obligations under the Fair Work Act's expanded harassment framework.
Jonathan Jackson, 2st April 2026
