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.)

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(Agencies)