No time records, no defence as Authority backs PA's huge unpaid hours claim

A salaried personal assistant claiming years of unpaid extra hours won over $105,000 in wage arrears, Authority Member Simon Greening ruled on 19 May 2026.

Sasha Lee started at JNJ Management Limited, the parent company of a hospitality and bowling group, in November 2018. On paper she was personal assistant to the group's sole director, James Yoong Sun Kwak. In practice, the Authority found, her work ran far wider, covering management duties across the group's businesses, project coordination and human resources.

Lee said her salary never covered the additional hours she put in over more than three years. JNJ argued the opposite, that her fixed salary paid for everything. The dispute turned on two clauses in her second employment agreement that appeared to pull in different directions.

Clause 5.1 read: "Your pay rate is specified in appendix 1. This rate includes all hours worked to complete the responsibilities of your position, except if requested to work on a public holiday." Clause 4.1.2 read: "You also agree to work any reasonable and mutually agreed additional hours required to fulfil the responsibilities of your position and extra payment will be made for those additional hours."

Greening read the clauses together, finding ordinary hours sat within Lee's salary while reasonable, mutually agreed additional hours attracted extra pay. Lee and Kwak worked closely and, for a period during the...

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