Area 41 Restaurant and Bar in New Plymouth which has been ordered to pay $86,500 in wages arrears and fines for exploiting staff members. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
A New Plymouth restaurant and its two directors have been ordered to pay more than $86,500 in owed wages and fines for exploiting its staff.
The Employment Relations Authority made the order following a Labour Inspectorate investigation sparked by a worker complaining he had been made to pay almost $17,000 for his job.
It found the Area 41 Restaurant and Bar and its directors Jaswant Singh Dham and Pushkar Tunnare had breached numerous minimum employment standards.
Five workers, four of whom were migrants, were affected by the breaches committed by Dilkhush Pvt Limited (trading as Area 41 Restaurant and Bar), and its directors.
The affected employees were on visas, two of whom were visa dependent on the restaurant.
Between 31 January 2020 and 29 July 2021, the directors forced one of the workers to repay between $200 and $300 a week from his wages because they were not prepared to pay him the $21 an hour required to meet visa requirements set by Immigration New Zealand.
The total amount the worker repaid his employers was $8900.
The worker also told the inspectorate he had been paid for 40 hours work per week but often worked more hours for which he had not been paid.
The breaches included; demanding a premium of $16,900 from a worker, underpayment of holiday pay, not paying minimum wage, making a worker repay a portion of his wages each week and inadequate record keeping
Head of the Labour Inspectorate Simon Humphries said DPL and its two directors "had taken advantage of their relationship with the vulnerability of the workers' situation by intentionally failing to provide them with their minimum entitlements, thereby gaining financial advantage".
The business, Dham and Tunnare accepted they were guilty of the breaches and responsible for repaying the workers the outstanding amounts owed to them.
They also accepted that they had failed to keep wage, time, holiday and leave records for two of the workers.
Authority Member Geoff O'Sullivan said the wages arrears owed were significant.
"Indeed, they are higher than the amount now claimed because DPL has repaid some of the illegal premium and some of the other arrears, however there is still outstanding arrears of some $26,587.88."
He ordered DPL and its directors to pay the arrears of $26,587.88 and pay a penalty of $40,000.
Dham and Tunnare were also ordered to jointly pay a penalty of $20,000.
O'Sullivan also ordered that $3000 of the penalty be paid to the worker who had been forced to pay a premium for his job.
Humphries said that forcing an employee to pay a premium for the right to have a job was an "egregious" example of an employer exploiting the power imbalance of an employment relationship.
"The fact these employers accepted they had broken the law and have repaid some of what they owe these workers does not excuse their exploitative behaviour."
MBIE encourages anyone who thinks they or someone else has been treated unfairly in the workplace to contact our 0800 20 90 20 contact centre number where their concerns will be handled in a safe environment.