Not the director, but her husband must personally cover $55k in wage arrears
A director's husband, not the director, must personally pay a car groomer over $55,000, Employment Relations Authority member Simon Greening ruled on 31 July 2026.
The applicant, a migrant worker employed as a car groomer and detailer from June 2023, brought a claim against an Auckland car grooming and detailing company that operated seven days a week, from 8am to 7pm, after it was placed into liquidation by the court in March 2026, leaving more than $950,000 owed to unsecured creditors. His employment agreement, tied to a work visa, guaranteed him 40 hours of work a week at $29.70 an hour.
The company's director was named as a second respondent, but Greening found there was insufficient evidence she had aided or abetted the breaches. Her husband, who was not himself a director, was a different story: the applicant said he directed the work, managed the business and ran the payroll, and the Authority agreed. That made him, not his wife, liable under the Act's provisions covering people involved in a breach of employment standards. The applicant told the Authority he had met the director on only "two or three occasions".
Neither the director nor her husband took part in the Authority's investigation. The Authority tried to contact them ahead of a case management conference but had no success, and they did not attend either that conference or the investigation meeting in Auckland on 26 June 2026,...
White House border czar Tom Homan fired back on Sunday's "State of the Union" after Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") of targeting parents at sch...