Australian boss faces fine after hanging apprentice upside down, slapping him at Christmas party

Footage shows at least one person slapping the young worker. Photo / A Current Affair

An Aussie boss has pleaded guilty to operating an unsafe workplace after he was caught on video slapping a young apprentice who was hung upside down at a work Christmas party.

Ilyas Elkharraz said he was “degraded, humiliated and embarrassed” by the 2020 incident, which took place when was 23.

Video captured his boss at Melbourne Glass Solutions, Steven Yousif, repeatedly hitting him as he hung upside down in the grip of a crane.

Elkharraz earlier told A Current Affair that he “felt like a piece of meat” during the ordeal, which was filmed by his colleagues.

“After a week I started to get flashbacks. I got nightmares from it. It’s like I was a cow, hanging upside down.”

Elkharraz’s lawyer earlier warned that the boss’s actions risked his client suffering paralysis.

“If the thing they tied around his legs were to snap or loosen and he hit his head on the ground, now you’re dealing with brain damage or quadriplegia,” Tony Carbone said in 2021.

Footage shows at least one person slapping the young worker. Photo / A Current Affair

He quit his job after the humiliation and took a case against his former employer.

Yousif, who has since wound up Melbourne Glass Solutions, pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a working environment that was safe and without risk to health and faces a fine of A$80,595 ($87,000), news.com.au reports.

“He now realises his conduct was wrong and has no place in the modern workplace,” his lawyer Joseph D’Abaco told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

D’Abaco argued that a conviction would affect his client’s ability to run his second business, saying it would mean Yousif’s “ability to successfully tender for certain projects” would be impacted.

He said that firm’s employees could also “potentially be collateral damage here for no fault of their own”.

The magistrate adjourned the case to December to allow the penalty and possible conviction to be considered.