Business owner made migrant employees work long hours while underpaying them
A business owner with several Auckland- and Hamilton-based businesses has been sentenced to 11 months of home detention for charges relating to migrant exploitation.
The business owner knowingly employed and aided a person to remain unlawfully in New Zealand, as well as underpaid her workers thousands of dollars, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, citing an investigation from Immigration New Zealand.
The investigation, which lasted for five years, further found that the business owner intentionally mistreated and misled her employees, as well as provided misleading information to Immigration NZ to progress a visa application.
She also made her employees work long hours without paying them or at a rate less than the minimum wage for the hours they worked.
Overall, she had failed to pay approximately NZD 41,000 under the Minimum Wage Act 1983 and approximately NZD 9,000 for entitlements under the Holidays Act 2003 to three employees over an eight-month period in 2018.
"While failing to pay her workers according to their statutory minimum entitlements, [the business owner] chose to purchase and open a further two businesses," said Jason Perry, MBIE National Manager Immigration Investigations, in a statement.
The business owner faced six charges of exploitation of unlawful or temporary employees, two charges of aiding and abetting, and one charge...
In a fight over President Donald Trump’s quest to acquire Greenland, the president made false and misleading statements about the Nobel Peace Prize and his own peace record. “Considering your Coun...