The court found Mortlake Deli Fresh Cafe's Peter Thulborn had failed to follow a compliance notice requiring the back-payment of a worker who had been employed at the cafe.

In addition to the substantial fine, Mr Thulborn was ordered to follow the compliance notice, which forces him to calculate and pay the back wages owed to the worker, plus superannuation and interest.

The Fair Work Ombudsman brought the case against Mr Thulborn after receiving a request from the worker, who was employed part-time at the cafe between July 2018 and November 2019.

A Fair Work inspector issued Mr Thulborn with an initial compliance notice in March 2020 after forming a belief the worker had been underpaid her part-time minimum wages, penalty rates for public holiday, early morning, and weekend work, as well as not being paid her accrued annual leave at the end of her employment at the cafe.

The inspector also believed Mr Thulborn had broken workplace laws by providing pay slips to the worker that didn't contain the payment date or the period to which the pay slip related.

The court upheld the FWO's allegations and a spokesman for the FWO said there was no record of Mr Thulborn seeking to appeal the decision.

Records show Mr Thulborn submitted evidence to support his case, but didn't attend the final hearing, which was brought forward from July to April 27.

Mr Thulborn declined to comment to The Standard.

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