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Working holiday company fined, agrees to refund disgruntled customers
Tuesday, 15 Mar 2016 12:55:58 | Mazoe Ford And Amy Bainbridge
The Global Work and Travel Co office is housed at Surfers Paradise in Queensland. (ABC News)
A Gold Coast-based working holiday company has copped a fine and agreed to refund thousands of dollars to young travellers after Queensland's employment watchdog took the company to court.
The Global Work and Travel Co arranges travel and employment packages for 10,000 young people each year, primarily in Australia, UK, USA and Canada.
But in 2014, a joint ABC and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) investigation unearthed dozens of angry customers, who accused Global of charging big mark-ups, using high-pressure sales tactics, and making false promises about securing employment.
The stories prompted two separate investigations by the Queensland Government.
Queensland's Office of Industrial Relations (OIR) brought multiple charges against the company, and the charges have now all been settled.
On Monday, the OIR said it would not continue to pursue the company, after it agreed to pay the two backpackers $4,585 in outstanding fees charged for finding them work.
The company has seven days to make the payment, and the OIR says once it is made all action against the company will have been resolved.
In another hearing in February, The Global Work and Travel Co was fined $9,000 for six contraventions of the Private Employment Agents Act 2005.
The charges were related to the company accepting a deposit/fee from work-seekers as a condition of finding work, failure to provide information statements to work-seekers and failure to keep a register of people looking for work.
Last year, a separate investigation by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading (OFT) resulted in 29 people who had signed up for travel packages assistance receiving partial refunds totalling $25,655.
The company denied misleading consumers or marking up flights and said its customer satisfaction rate was between 97.5 and 99 per cent.
The partial refunds, which ranged from approximately $200 to $1,500, came after a 13-month investigation by the OFT.
The Global Work and Travel Co has been contacted for comment.
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