13 November 2024

New Plymouth restaurant, two owners to pay $86,500 for exploiting workers

A New Plymouth restaurant business and its two directors have been ordered to pay $86,500 in wages arrears and penalties by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) after breaching numerous minimum employment standards.

The business, Dilkhush Pvt Limited (trading as Area 41 Restaurant and Bar on Brougham Street), and its directors Jaswant Singh Dham and Pushkar Tunnare were investigated after a worker complained he had been made to pay for his job at the restaurant.

The affected employees were on visas, two of whom were visa dependent on Dilkhush Pvt Limited (DPL).

The order made by Authority Member Geoff O’Sullivan followed an investigation by the Labour Inspectorate in August 2021.

During the investigation, the Labour Inspector identified five workers – four of whom were migrants  – who had been affected by the breaches committed by the business, DPL and its directors Dham and Tunnare.

Owners fined for workers exploitation
Business & owners must pay $86,500 for exploiting workers

Among the breaches were 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.

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 to his employers was $8,900.

The worker also told the inspector he had been paid for 40 hours work per week but often worked more hours for which he had not been paid.

DPL, Dham and Tunnare accepted they were guilty of the breaches, had broken the law 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.

Simon Humphries, Head of the Labour Inspectorate, said DPL and its two directors “had taken advantage of their relationship with the vulnerability of the workers’ situation.”

He ordered DPL and its directors to pay the arrears of $26,587.88; DPL pay a penalty of $40,000 and Dham and Tunnare jointly pay a penalty of $20,000 and that $3,000 of the penalty amount to be paid to the worker forced to pay a premium for his job.

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, according to MBIE.

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