A Piopio dairy and its owners must pay $16,000 in penalties after the Employment Relations Authority found them liable for 21 individual breaches of minimum employment standards which impacted migrants working at the business.
Breaches included unlawful deductions from the wages of employees and failing to pay annual holiday entitlements, etc.
The company operating the dairy, A W & B L Mudaliar Limited, trading as Piopio Superette, must pay a penalty of $10,000 while the directors, husband and wife Avinesh and Bidya Mudaliar, were ordered to pay penalties of $3,000 each for the breaches.
Authority Member Eleanor Robinson also ruled that the company must also pay $1,443.23 in outstanding arrears for holiday pay, plus interest. The initial arrears totalled $5,651.57, but $4,208 has since been repaid to the affected employees.
Among the breaches found were: Failing to pay annual holiday entitlements to four employees when they stopped working for the business; failing to include mandatory information in the employment agreements of three employees; unlawful deductions from the wages of employees; stipulating how the workers could spend their wages; including an illegal clause in the employment agreement of one employee, and failing to keep accurate holiday and leave records for six workers.
At the hearing, Mudaliar told the Authority that people on visas frequently worked at the superette and being immigrants themselves, they were happy to help employees with their applications for visas and other qualifications.
In her determination, Robinson said the employees were all migrant workers which increased their vulnerability. “However, I have not found an exploitative element and the employers were cooperative with the Labour Inspector’s investigation.”
Katriona Ikenasio, Retail Sector Lead for the Labour Inspectorate, said while the employers in this case were co-operative and it had been found there had been no intent to exploit the workers, the outcome provided a valuable lesson for employers in New Zealand.
“Employers cannot afford to cut corners when it comes to adhering to this country’s employment law. These laws have been put in place to protect both employers and employees, so it is important business owners and managers understand their responsibilities in this regard.”
MBIE encourages anyone who thinks they or someone else has been treated unfairly in the workplace to contact them at 0800 20 90 20.
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