Prosecutions over migrant worker exploitation are only the tip of the iceberg, according to a union leader.
Milk distribution company JP and JD Bowden partnership was yesterday fined $5000 for charging a migrant worker fees that meant her take-home pay was reduced to $4.37 an hour - far below the minimum wage of $14.25 an hour.
Last week a Christchurch restaurant was ordered to pay an immigrant chef $175,000 for unpaid wages.
Rebuild and recovery co-ordinator for the Canterbury branch of the First Union, Paul Watson, said that was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Where they're brave enough to come forward and talk to the unions and the authorities about their problem, they're giving us example after example of other problems that are going on as well.”