Overseas worker underpaid $45k in Qld

The owner of a regional Queensland restaurant has apologised to and backpaid an overseas worker who was underpaid more than $45,000 in little over a year.

The Malaysian worker was recruited as a restaurant manager but was employed as a chef at Toowoomba's Ni Hao Chinese Restaurant, where he was paid as little as $617 a week before he contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman found he should have been paid $98,482 instead of the $52,678 he actually received between November 2013 and January 2015, with the bulk of the underpayment for unpaid overtime.

The owner has fully reimbursed his former employee and provided a written apology expressing "sincere regret" for the conduct, Fair Work said.