Apex Recruitment Limited has been convicted and fined $3,600, and its director, Georgia Carolan-Hyland, has also been convicted and fined $1,500, for their involvement in knowingly employing migrant workers in breach of their visa conditions.
Apex Recruitment that has its office in Rosedale, Auckland, was charged with allowing the two migrants to work in roles they weren’t legally allowed to do.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) filed the charges in June 2021, after a compliance operation discovered two foreign nationals working on an Auckland building site in breach of their visa conditions.
Carolan-Hyland faced charges of aiding and abetting Apex Recruitment to employ the workers while knowing they were not entitled to do such work.
INZ’s General Manager Verification and Compliance, Geoff Scott, says the two workers had visas that allowed them to do seasonal work, but did not allow them to work in the construction sector.
“Apex Recruitment and its director were aware of this fact but chose to employ the workers anyway. This shows a blatant disregard for the rules which will not be tolerated.”
Geoff Scott says this sentencing is just one of a number of prosecutions INZ has taken since it ran a series of compliance and education visits to Auckland building sites in March and April last year. Two other cases have been before the Courts.
In July 2021, Dison Homes was fined $2,500 for its part in allowing two unlawful workers to be employed at a building site in East Tamaki.
Another defendant, Ren Yang, is due to reappear in Court next month. He faces charges of allowing migrants to work when they were not entitled to do so. This relates to the use of unlawful migrant labour discovered at an Auckland CBD building site.
Scott says the prosecutions show INZ takes such offending seriously and will pursue those responsible.
INZ encourages anyone aware of the unlawful use of migrant labour to report it to a dedicated exploitation hotline 0800 200 088.
– from NewsViews
