The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured a total of $478,880 in penalties in court against two Melbourne-based companies and their manager for conduct including the systematic exploitation of migrant workers, and adverse action.
Finance broking company Ansa Finance Pty Ltd, which is based in Toorak, has been penalised $233,100 and the company’s manager Joshua Fuoco has been penalised $72,620, by the Federal Circuit and Family Court.
In addition, another Toorak-based company Mr Fuoco is the manager of, AFSL Group Pty Ltd, has been penalised $173,160.
The Court previously ordered Ansa Finance and AFSL Group to rectify the total $30,817 it underpaid the four affected workers, plus interest and superannuation.
It is the third time the Fair Work Ombudsman has secured penalties in court against Ansa Finance, a broker for short-term personal loans, and Mr Fuoco. It is the first time the Fair Work Ombudsman has secured penalties against AFSL Group.
The latest penalties also come after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission secured a suspended jail sentence against Mr Fuoco in 2025 for contempt of court.
Three of the affected workers in the Fair Work Ombudsman’s latest legal action were visa holders from India and Nepal at the time, and the one further employee (an Australian citizen) was a university student then aged 20.
In addition to underpaying the workers, Ansa Finance and AFSL Group committed a range of other breaches including taking adverse action against two of the workers by terminating their employment in response to them requesting payment of outstanding entitlements.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the conduct was extremely serious.
“There is no place in Australian workplaces for exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers, and employers who do so will face legal action and significant penalties,” Ms Booth said.
“The termination of two of the workers for requesting payment of entitlements they were lawfully owed was appalling conduct. Neither we as the national regulator nor the courts tolerate such adverse action – workers have a right to raise enquiries or complaints about their pay without negative consequences.
“Visa holder workers have the same workplace rights as all other workers, and protections exist for their visa if they seek help.
“Employers should be aware that taking action to protect vulnerable young and migrant workers is an enduring priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman, and we have a clear track record of litigating against those flouting workplace laws.
“Any employees with concerns about their pay or entitlements should contact us for free advice and assistance, as the four workers in this case did. Employees can also contact their union for assistance if they are a member.”
The Fair Work Ombudsman began its latest investigation after receiving requests for assistance from the four affected workers; three had been employed by Ansa Finance and one by AFSL Group.
The workers were engaged in insurance, broking and customer relationship management roles for various periods in 2021 and 2022.
The companies underpaid the workers primarily as a result of failing to pay them for some or all of the work they performed.
The visa worker who was employed by AFSL Group was paid nothing for four months of work performed, despite being entitled to a total of $6,884 in wages and entitlements.
In her penalty judgment, Judge Janine Young noted that the worker employed by AFSL Group gave evidence that, after being terminated in response to requesting payment of owed entitlements, “she was unemployed for six months, was in “significant financial difficulty” and had to rely on her parents sending money from India and friends and family in Australia loaning her money to survive. [The worker]’s evidence is that she found her experience with [AFSL Group] so upsetting that she no longer works in the finance industry…”
Ansa Finance and AFSL Group had engaged the workers pursuant to written contracts that provided for higher-than-award rates, but underpaid them a range of entitlements under the Banking, Finance and Insurance Award 2020 and the Fair Work Act’s National Employment Standards.
Underpaid entitlements included minimum hourly rates, and entitlements related to public holidays, annual leave and personal leave, and notice-of-termination. Safety net contractual entitlements, which relate to the minimum wage rates specified in the workers’ written contracts, were also underpaid.
The highest individual underpayment was $14,336 owed to the 20-year-old university student.
Ansa Finance and AFSL Group breached the adverse action provisions of the Fair Work Act by terminating the employment of two of the workers in response to the workers requesting payment of outstanding entitlements.
The companies also breached laws relating to frequency-of-pay and issuing pay slips, and failed to comply with Notices to Produce records or documents issued by a Fair Work Inspector.
Mr Fuoco was involved as an accessory in most of the companies’ breaches.
Judge Young found that the breaches involved deliberate exploitation of vulnerable workers.
Her Honour was particularly critical of the “habitual non-compliance” of Mr Fuoco and Ansa Finance, finding their conduct “demonstrates a disregard for the employees’ lawful statutory entitlements and a sustained willingness to prioritise their own interests at the expense of their employees’ entitlements and workplace rights, and a cavalier disregard for the integrity of the Fair Work regulatory system.”
The penalties imposed against Mr Fuoco and Ansa Finance reflected the “serious, deliberate, repeated, systematic and exploitative nature” of their contraventions, Judge Young said.
Her Honour found that the penalties should deter other employers, and Mr Fuoco specifically, from similar conduct in future.
“I accept the submission of the FWO that based on [Mr Fuoco’s] past conduct and his ongoing role in multiple corporations there is a real likelihood that he may employ staff again and that specific deterrence is required,” Judge Young said.
The Fair Work Ombudsman secured $99,900 in penalties in court against Ansa Finance Pty Ltd and Mr Fuoco in 2024 across two separate legal actions for failing to take steps to backpay workers as required by Compliance Notices.
The Fair Work Ombudsman filed 171 litigations against employers involving visa holder workers, and secured $39 million in penalties in cases that have included visa holder workers, in the eight financial years to June 2025.
The Fair Work Ombudsman filed 88 litigations involving an alleged accessory in the two years to June 2025. The FWO secured total penalties of $5,143,749 against accessories across the same timeframe.
