Massage shop shortchanges Vic staff

A Melbourne massage shop operator has been fined almost $120,000 after staff were underpaid tens of thousands of dollars.

The Fair Work Ombudsman found Lu's Healthcare, which operates shops in Melbourne's CBD and Richmond, short changed a male therapist $33,000 and a female therapist, who spoke little English, $21,000.

Under the in-house "code of conduct", workers were fined for being late, "having a lack of passion" or making noise.

Massage workers' fined by employer under "code of conduct":

* $100 for being late to work or absent without notice

* $50 for a "lack of passion or good hospitality"

* $20 for noise making and sleeping or lying on massage tables

* Punishment for "resistance to hard work" was being "put back into apprenticeship"