Apologies if this post is a little bit long.
I'm staying in a Melbourne hotel this week, as I have some IT training. Last night, I wandered out to find some dinner - since my wife isn't around, I could be a bit naughty and I went to the local fish and chippery.
It's a bit fancy and the prices were reasonable (Yelp'd first!). I rocked up and this English sounding girl served me, I ordered and then went to read the sports section of the local paper while I waited. Another woman was ahead of me, and after a minute her order came out and she was on her way. This is where everything went weird.
It would seem that she had been given the wrong order - the short, tattoo'd owner started yelling at the two female staff. Both were in their early 20's, he was probably mid 30's and.. rough looking. He continued railing at these poor girls for about 3 minutes, and then I THINK one said 'I'll pay for it' and he seemed placated at that point.
Anyway, out came my order, the bloke was out of earshot, so I said to the girl 'you don't deserve to be spoken to like that'. And she said 'oh, he gets like this'. I walked out of the shop and stopped to look in through the front glass, just in case he was ready to carry on with the girls when I left. At this point, I noticed that there was one other 'customer' sitting in the corner - a young Asian chap with a backpack. As I was looking at the girls, the guy walks out from behind the counter, runs over to the Asian bloke and stands over the top of him - I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he was certainly yelling. Poor guy walked outside and I asked him if everything was ok. He said that he worked at the shop until last Friday, when he was fired. He told me that he was owed $600 for his final pay. I asked him a few questions.
- Yes, he's an international student.
- He was on $15/hr, under the award wage.
- He was told to come back on Thursday for his pay, but he didn't think he would get paid even then.
- He told me 'what can I do, I have no rights'.
At this point I had to decide, either walk away and feel like a dick all night, or try and sort it out. So of course I stupidly walked back in.
I walked to the counter and spoke to the guy. Told him that he needed to pay the bloke outside. Of course, he went off tap at me, telling me to mind my own business, etc. Told me that the guy outside had done 'bad things' to the two girls there. He then walked out from around the counter and stood directly in front of me, trying to intimidate me. I've got a good foot on him and at least 40kgs. He's very clearly drunk, I can smell a lot of spirits on his breath. He continues his rant - suggesting that I 'come in here with your blue eyes' - corrected him, they are green. Eventually decided I'd had enough and walked out of the shop. One of the girls thanked me for standing up for them - told her that I was calling the police.
I then walked a little bit with this Asian guy, got his mobile and said I'd find out what rights he had, and who to speak to. After he left, I called 000 and reported the guy, said that he was drunk and I was really concerned for these girls' safety. They said that they'd send a car out asap. Got back to my hotel and did a bit of Googling, found the Fair Work Australia site for international students, and got the contact number. I texted this information to him.
The question for you all - who can this international student speak to about getting his final pay? He feels that he has no rights, but obviously he does have some. He deserves his final pay (even if it's under the award). Besides Fair Work Australia, is there a group that specialises in his sort of situation, perhaps an international student advocate?
Thanks for any help you can provide. This poor guy has bills to pay like the rest of us.
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Couple of points:
- inb4 racism - the shop owner is Anglo.
- I did ask one of the girls whether the guy outside had 'done something terrible' to them. She said no, the owner is drunk and won't remember any of this in the morning.
I appreciate that you stood up for poor guys and girls. Hats off to you.