A Newport transport tycoon whose employees were allegedly cheated out of more than $200,000 in wages and entitlements has lost his bid to make a union pay his court costs.
Raymond Powell Evans, who was sole shareholder in the Railway Employment Company and Masked Fox, was hit with a Federal Court lawsuit over large-scale workplace law violations.
His drivers’ jobs were transferred from Regional Port Enterprises to Railway Employment Co, both wholly owned by Mr Evans, in June 2013.
Regional Port Enterprises then went into liquidation and workers were never paid what they were owed, it is alleged.
Court documents claim Mr Evans tried to transfer the workforce to Masked Fox on less pay.
But the Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union dropped legal action after an investigation failed to turn up any assets attached to Mr Evans.
State locomotive divisional secretary Marc Marotta said the union had spent more than $100,000 pursuing Mr Evans.
“We can pursue and possibly get a conviction but it becomes a pyrrhic victory because the aim was not for the conviction, it was to recoup monies for those people involved,” he said.
The Federal Court granted the union leave to discontinue proceedings on the basis that each party bear its own costs.
Mr Evans could not be contacted.
With The Age
