In response to a United Voice claim posted here on 4 May TFM Australia has reimbursed all payments made by five of its cleaners to a supervisor who required that they pay her to be hired to work on a Sydney office site. “We are horrified by this recruitment activity and apologise without reservation for this unauthorised action by the supervisor,” said TFM Australia’s general manager, Scott Oliver. “The supervisor has been suspended, pending further investigation by Fair Work Ombudsmen. These staff hold their positions with us under all the conditions required by Australian industrial law,” he added.
Oliver said that all TFM cleaners employed from Friday 1 May to work on the office block at 388 George Street, Sydney, had received their first payment. “It was processed this morning,” he revealed. “These payments are as per the award and we have provided our relevant clients at the George Street site, IAG and Brookfield, with copies of these documents.
“We have also provided copies to the Fair Work Ombudsman.” Oliver explained that the incident had occurred when a newly-recruited supervisor, who had been due to start work with TFM this week, had placed a recruitment ad on a non-English language website two weeks ago. He said that TFM Australia had no knowledge of it and had not authorised the advertisement, which required upfront payments from applicants to the supervisor.
“Our clients IAG and Brookfield, at the Sydney office block, also had no knowledge of this action,” stated Oliver. “TFM has a long and successful history of delivering high quality services to companies around Australia and that it is proud of its fair, ethical and lawful treatment of its employees.”
He continued to say that all cleaners on the site were: paid in accordance with the Award, which is above minimum wage levels; properly engaged with Tax File numbers; paid for all training; and not charged a fee to be employed by TFM.
“We are clearly concerned for our employees, deplore the unauthorised activity by the supervisor and apologise for this incident,” Oliver concluded.