Underpaid student sues Australian companies

07/07/2008 14:43:22

A Pakistani student who worked in security at this year's Australian Tennis Open is taking the companies he worked for to court, claiming they paid him 'a slave's wage'

Faisal Durrani was allegedly paid just $US192 for more than 150 hours work, which is about $1.21 an hour.

Mr Durrani's lawyer, Andrew Weinmann says it's one of the worst cases of underpayment he's seen.

"It's the most grave case I've come across before, Mr Weinmann said,

"We commonly enough see people not paid properly, but in this case our client's been paid barely at all - that's very unusual."

Chris Delaney from the Australian Security Industry Association says Mr Durrani has every right to start legal action.

"The sub-contracting arrangements that do get put in place from time to time are usually there because the manpower is insufficient in one particular organisation to do the work," he said.

"But it shouldn't lead to, in any instance, an employee being underpaid."

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