New Zealand / Hawkes Bay

Service station ordered to pay $250k for mistreating workers

20:38 pm on 11 April 2018

A BP station owner in Hastings has been ordered to pay $252,000 to two former staff who were not paid the minimum wage or holiday pay, and made to sleep on the floor of accomodation they were forced to rent.

Photo: AFP

Jag Rawat was sentenced to five months home detention in March last year after pleading guilty to falsifying immigration documents and misleading Immigration New Zealand.

Following a Labour Inspectorate investigation, he must now pay $132,000 in lost wages and $120,000 in penalties.

Labour Inspectorate regional manager Loua Ward says the ex-employees had wages unlawfully deducted by Mr Rawat and at times worked 16-hour shifts that were not recorded.