A Sydney boss deliberately refused to pay five of his staff their Christmas wages, despite pleas from one long-serving worker that he would not be able to buy presents for his children。

　　Printing company director Robert Michael Francis was begged by a long-serving employee: "I need to be able to get my kids Christmas presents or they're not going to have a Christmas morning."

　　Mr Francis replied: "Well I'm not getting any Christmas presents either you know. If you don't like it, then leave."

　　But it turned out it was the Federal Magistrates' Court that didn't like it - fining Mr Francis $8000 for refusing to give the worker and his four colleagues $55,000 after his company Beaver Press went into administration。

　　The Fair Work Ombudsman took action against Mr Francis after he got his company off the hook by placing it into voluntary administration。

　　In a judgment handed down this week, federal magistrate Matthew Smith specifically highlighted the evidence of an employee who had worked for Beaver Press for 21 years, who was told by Mr Francis to leave if he didn't like the fact he was not getting his back pay. Mr Francis used the same line to other employees。

　　The court was told that the previous month, Mr Francis had informed a staff meeting at his Chippendale factory: "People owe me money. I'm waiting on cheques to come in. Once that's happened, I'll pay a couple of people their wages. If you don't like that, you can leave."

　　Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson told The Daily Telegraph it was vital his office pursued and prosecuted matters such as these。

　　"It is important for us to take action against those companies and individuals who show little regard for employees' lawful workplace rights," Mr Wilson said。

　　(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website。)

　　悉尼一位老板近日因故意拒付五位员工的圣诞节工资被罚。此前他不顾一位老员工的恳求，因为这样这位员工将无法给自己的孩子买圣诞礼物了。

　　这位老员工哀求印刷公司董事长罗伯特•迈克尔•弗朗西斯说：“我需要钱给我的孩子买圣诞礼物，否则他们不会拥有一个快乐的圣诞早晨。”

　　弗朗西斯回复说：“你知道，我也不会得到什么圣诞礼物。如果你不喜欢这样，那就走人。”

　　但结果，联邦治安法庭却不喜欢这种做法。弗朗西斯因在其公司Beaver Press进入自愿托管后拒绝支付这名员工及其4位同事5.5万美元薪水，而被判罚款八千美元。

　　公平工作调查专员对弗朗西斯提起诉讼。此前，他的公司进入自愿托管，并因此摆脱了困境。

　　在本周宣布的判决中，联邦地方法官马修•史密斯特别强调了这一证据，一名为Beaver Press公司工作了21年的员工被弗朗西斯告知如果不愿接受工资遭拖欠这一事实，就可以走人。弗朗西斯对其他员工也说了同样的话。

　　法庭还获悉，弗朗西斯上月还在其齐本德尔工厂的员工会议上说：“人们欠我钱，我在等支票进账。一旦有钱了，我才会向几位员工支付工资。如果你们不喜欢，那就走人。”

　　公平工作调查专员尼古拉斯•威尔森告诉《每日电讯报》，他们所在的机构追踪并起诉类似案件，这很重要。

　　威尔森说：“对这些毫不考虑员工合法工作权利的公司和个人提起诉讼对我们来说很重要。