Ex-D365 director forced to cough up more than $180,000 for underpaying staff

The Fair Work Ombudsman ordered that David Mark Blumentals pay up after under paying staff.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has ordered the ex-director of D365 to pay more than $180,000 in penalties and repayments after being found underpaying his staff.

David Mark Blumentals, the sole director and shareholder of the now defunct MSP was ordered to pay a $35,308 penalty and a personal compensation order of almost $150,000.

The penalty was imposed in response to Blumentals’ involvement in D365.Group underpaying 16 workers a total of $148,812 between October 2021 and December 2022.

In addition to the penalty, the court has ordered Blumentals to personally make compensation payments to rectify the underpayments in full, plus interest.

The underpaid workers were IT consultants who were based in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven were visa holders.

All 16 workers were not paid their accrued annual leave entitlements at the end of their employment and 12 were not paid their wages in full for the final weeks of work they performed. One was also underpaid payment-in-lieu-of-notice-of-termination entitlements.

Judge Gillian Eldershaw found that Blumentals non-compliance in the current matter was deliberate, and that he had displayed no contrition or effort to rectify the underpayments across the years since, instead making baseless claims of dishonest dealings and wrongdoing against the affected workers.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said business operators need to be aware that they can be pursued in court for penalties and compensation orders, even in circumstances where their company has been wound up.

“There is a strong public interest in us taking enforcement action to ensure individuals, while not the legal employer, are held to account for their involvement in significant, deliberate employee underpayments,” she said.

D365.Group was an ITSP focusing on deploying Dynamics 365 to its customers Australia-wide.

In 2023, the federal court ordered the company to go into liquidation after years of underpaying staff’s wages and superannuation.