The owners of an Italian restaurant by the name of Zefirelli’s in Canberra were prosecuted for breaches of the Workplace Relations Act 1996. Ms D.S.C. and Mr N.E.A. were offered employment at the restaurant, and arrived in Australia from the Philippines on Subclass 457 visas sponsored by the owners of Zeffirelli’s. After investigations were conducted by the Office of Workplace Services, The Italian Eatery Pty Ltd was charged with several breaches of the Act during the employment of D.S.C. and N.E.A., mainly concerned with failure to pay overtime and other penalty rates..

There have been media reports and accounts in the Parliamentary Debates that D.S.C. from the above case, as well as a number of other workers recruited with her were “sold” by John Harrington and Ashley Delandar, their original employers, to Zeffirelli’s for between $6000 and $8000 each. However, there is no evidence of this taking place and there has been no case against either Harrington or Delandar. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that these incidents were instances of trafficking rather than labor exploitation.