The owner of a Belconnen massage parlour allegedly threatened to kill family members of his employees in the Philippines if they told authorities about their working conditions, a court has heard.
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"If you ever tell ... I will get someone in the Philippines to kill your family," it's alleged Colin Kenneth Elvin told a group of his workers.
He allegedly said he knew someone who killed people for money and that it would only cost him 10,000 pesos.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking legal action against the foot&thai massage company and its former owner Mr Elvin and the parlour's former supervisor Jun Millard Puerto, alleging the business exploited seven vulnerable Filipino workers between June 2012 and February 2016.
Mr Elvin and Mr Puerto deny the allegations.
At the opening of the trial on Monday, the Federal Court of Australia in Canberra heard Mr Elvin and Mr Puerto travelled to the Philippines in 2012 and 2013 to recruit the massage therapists, promising salaries of $52,000 per year for eight hours of work a day, five days per week.
Mr Elvin's company Foot and Thai Massage Pty Ltd allegedly sponsored the workers on 457 visas and arranged for them to travel to Australia.
But, it's alleged, the working conditions on arrival were quite different to what had been promised.
A barrister for the ombudsman, Michael Seck, told the court the treatment of the workers was "a form of modern slavery".
It involved the trafficking of humans by transporting them to Australia, coercive practices, physical threats of violence and the restriction of workers' freedom and movement, he said.
Mr Seck said when they arrived the workers had to work some 12 hours a day but were only paid for a portion of those hours.
They were allegedly forced to live at a four-bedroom property in Higgins with some 13 other people sleeping side by side on mattresses on the floor. A gate at the property too high to climb over was allegedly locked at night.
Six of the workers were allegedly forced to pay $800 a fortnight when business was slow, and the business allegedly made unauthorised deductions from their pay.
It's alleged the workers had to follow strict rules, including not having any friends, pretend they came from Thailand, not to speak in their native language with each other, not eat junk food, white rice or sugar.
Mr Seck said the workers were threatened to be sent home, that some workers had been sent home, and the threats were very real.
They were vulnerable and socially isolated, he said, with financially dependent family members back home in the Philippines.
The ombudsman alleges the company breached workplace laws and regulations by failing to pay minimum, public holiday and overtime rates and by taking action preventing workers exercising a workplace right.
It's alleged the company owed the workers more than $813,000, with $668,000 still outstanding.
The ombudsman, Sandra Parker, wants Mr Elvin and Mr Puerto to back-pay the money owed in full and pay the workers compensation for the alleged breaches.
She wants penalties imposed on the business and Mr Elvin and Mr Puerto for multiple alleged contraventions of workplace laws.
Mr Elvin, who is representing himself at the hearing, cross-examined one of the workers who gave evidence on Monday.
She told the court through an interpreter that they were not allowed to leave the Higgins home at first but after the first three months staff could leave to exercise in the morning.
Asked how their confinement was monitored, the woman said she and the other workers were frightened after being told they could be sent home so they followed Mr Elvin's rules.
She also said she was allowed to return to the Philippines three times for holidays.
The hearing continues.
