MORE than 100 workers from Melbourne’s western and north-west suburbs have been underpaid by their employers over the past four months, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s state director Paul Werner.

These included a Deer Park labourer, who was underpaid by more than $11,000 after missing out on the minimum hourly rate, weekend penalty rates and overtime.

And a Derrimut bookkeeper was underpaid more than $7600, while a Deer Park transport industry worker and a Sunshine service industry worker were both underpaid more than $5000.

However, after a Fair Work Ombudsman’s investigation, the employees received back pay.

Mr Werner said the watchdog had intervened in many cases over the past quarter year where employees and ex-workers had been paid less than they were owed by their bosses.

He said most of the cases involved small businesses with less than 20 employees.

Fair Work inspectors discovered the underpayments through routine audits and investigating worker’s complaints.

Mr Werner said many complaints came from people who worked at small businesses, such as the ones in the industrial estates of Sunshine.

He said this was not because small business owners tried to cheat workers, but they were simply unaware of their payroll obligations.

However, the ombudsman found “significant underpayments” in the retail, security and cleaning industries.

Mr Werner said most of the claims were solved with the co-operation of both parties and the Fair Work Ombudsman had finalised 6000 claims over the past 12 months.

For more information visit www.fwo.gov.au or phone the Fair Work infoline on 13 13 94.