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The owners of an Italian restaurant in New Plymouth were fined $60,000 for an “insidious” that involved charging one migrant worker $16,000 just to get a job, then charging him an hourly rate because they said the minimum wage was too high.
Stuff reports that the Labour Inspectorate received a complaint from an employee at the Area 41 restaurant in August 2021. The worker said he had paid to get a job and had not been paid for his hours.
Dilkhush PVT Limited operates the restaurant.
Officers of the Labour Inspectorate investigated, and four employees were identified as having claims against the company and its directors, Jaswant Dham and Pushkar Junnare. The Labour Inspectorate went to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) with claims that the company had illegally required workers to pay a premium for their jobs, underpaid them, and failed to keep adequate records.
Both directors acknowledged they had received a $16,000 “loan” from one of the workers between 2018 and 2021 as payment for giving him a job. It is illegal for any employer or any person engaged on behalf of the employer to seek or receive payment for the employment of any person.
The directors also made the worker repay a portion of his wages because they were not prepared to pay him the $21 an hour required to meet visa requirements set by Immigration New Zealand. They were also found to have breached the Minimum Wage Act and the Holidays Act. They accepted that $26,407.88 remained outstanding in respect of the employees.
The Labour Inspectorate said the company should be fined $100,000 for the offence, and the directors jointly fined $50,000. After arguments, the company was fined $40,000, and the directors were fined $20,000.
