Melbourne employer fined $478,880 for exploiting visa

On 9 October 2026 the Fair Work Ombudsman announced that a court had ordered two Melbourne companies and their manager to pay $478,880 in penalties for underpaying four workers and sacking two of them for asking about their pay. Three of the four were visa holders from India and Nepal. If you are an international student working in Melbourne, this case is a useful reminder: your visa does not shrink your rights at work, and asking for help will not get your visa cancelled.

What happened

The two companies are based in Toorak and work in short-term personal loan broking. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman's media release, the Federal Circuit and Family Court penalised the first company $233,100, a related company $173,160, and the manager personally $72,620.

The money owed to the workers was small next to the penalties. The court had earlier ordered the companies to pay back $30,817 in total, plus interest and super. One visa holder worked for four months and was paid nothing at all, even though she was owed $6,884. When she asked for the money, she was sacked. The judge noted she then spent six months unemployed and relied on her parents in India and on loans from friends to get by.

The fourth worker was a 20-year-old university student and an Australian citizen. That student was owed the most, $14,336.

It was the third time the regulator had won penalties against the main company and its manager. The judge described the conduct as serious, deliberate, repeated and systematic.

Why this matters if you are a student on a visa

Most people who get underpaid never complain. Students on a visa have an extra fear: that speaking up will somehow reach Home Affairs and put their visa at risk. The regulator went out of its way in this case to say that is not how it works. In the words of the Fair Work Ombudsman, visa holder workers have the same workplace rights as all other workers, and protections exist for their visa if they seek help.

Here is what the official pages say, in plain terms.

You have the same minimum pay and conditions as any Australian worker doing the same job. A contract cannot sign those rights away. This is on the Fair Work visa holders and migrants page.
Your employer cannot cancel your visa. Only Home Affairs can grant, refuse or cancel a visa. Threatening to cancel your visa, or to report you to immigration, is itself against the law, as is keeping your passport or pressuring you to work more hours than your visa allows. Home Affairs lists all of these on its migrant worker protections page.
Contacting the Fair Work Ombudsman will not get your visa cancelled. Their page says this directly, and it says it again in the section written for international students.
Being sacked for asking about your pay is called adverse action. It is illegal, and it was one of the breaches in this case.

The 48-hour trap

Student visa holders are usually limited to 48 hours of work a fortnight. Some employers use that cap against you. The Fair Work site gives an example: a kitchen hand on a student visa is made to work 60 hours a fortnight, then paid for 48, and the boss says the extra 12 hours do not count because the visa does not allow them.

That is wrong. The Fair Work Act says you must be paid for every hour you work, whatever your visa says. Going over the cap can still be a visa problem, which is why the reporting protections below exist. But it is never a reason for an employer to keep your wages.

What the pay should look like

From 1 July 2026 the National Minimum Wage is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week, according to the Fair Work minimum wages page. Most jobs are covered by an award, and award rates are often higher, with casual loading and penalty rates on top. The Pay and Conditions Tool on the Fair Work site tells you the rate for your job.

You should also get a pay slip every time you are paid. Not getting pay slips was one of the breaches in the Melbourne case.

What to do now

Check your rate. Put your job and award into the Fair Work Pay and Conditions Tool and compare it with your pay slip. Casual loading, weekend and public holiday rates all count.
Keep your own record of hours. Fair Work has a free Record my hours app. Screenshots of rosters and messages work too.
Ask your employer first, in writing if you can. Keep it short and factual: the hours, the rate, the amount you think is missing.
If nothing changes, call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94. For a free interpreter, call 13 14 50 first and ask them to connect you. You can also report anonymously online. These numbers are on the visa holders and migrants page.
If you broke a work condition because of the exploitation, ask about reporting protections before you panic. See the next section.
Never pay money to get or keep a job. Cashback schemes and paying for sponsorship are both illegal.

If you went over your hours because of a bad employer

Home Affairs runs a Strengthening Reporting Protections Pilot. On its reporting protections page it lists the Student visa (subclass 500) among the visas covered. In short, if workplace exploitation caused you to break a work-related visa condition, Home Affairs says your situation will be considered appropriately, as long as:

the Fair Work Ombudsman or an accredited third party has certified the exploitation and is helping you resolve it
you agree to follow your visa conditions in future
the exploitation happened in the last 12 months (longer in some special cases)
there is no other reason to cancel your visa, such as fraud or character

You apply through an online form on that page, with the certificate attached. The accredited third parties listed include community legal centres and unions, among them the Migrant Workers Centre and WestJustice.

There is also a Workplace Justice visa. It is a temporary visa of 6 to 12 months for people who need to stay in Australia to pursue a workplace exploitation matter, and you apply when your current visa with work rights has 28 days or less left, or within 28 days of it expiring. Fair Work notes that the older Assurance Protocol is paused while these two pilots run.

None of this is automatic, and the Fair Work Ombudsman says it does not investigate every request, so it cannot always issue a certificate. The point is that the fear of reporting is smaller than most students think. Speak to the regulator or a community legal centre early.

Questions people ask

Can my employer report me to immigration if I complain about pay?

Your employer cannot cancel your visa, and threatening to report you to immigration is listed by Home Affairs as a form of exploitation. Fair Work says plainly that your visa will not be cancelled because you asked them for help.

I was paid cash and have no pay slips. Can I still claim?

Yes. Not giving pay slips is itself a breach. Your own records of hours, messages and bank transfers help. Call 13 13 94 and explain what you have.

I worked more than 48 hours a fortnight. Will I lose my visa if I speak up?

Going over the cap is a visa matter, and only Home Affairs decides on it. The reporting protections pilot exists for exactly this situation. Get the exploitation certified first, then use the Home Affairs form. Do not just stay silent and keep working unpaid.

A note from OneCall Melbourne

A lot of students we talk to put up with bad pay because they think a visa makes them powerless. The Melbourne case shows the opposite: the system does move, it just needs someone to make the call. If you are looking for work that pays properly, our free help into support work is at OneCall Melbourne jobs. If your visa is coming to an end and money is tight, read what to do when your student visa is ending. And if the October 2026 visa rule changes have left you unsure where you stand, see our onshore and offshore check.

For visa questions, talk to an education consultant through OneCall Melbourne or call 0413 599 209. For a pay problem, the first call is the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.

Sources

General information only, checked against the official sources above on the day it was written. It is not migration advice: only a registered migration agent or a lawyer can give you that.