A liquor store boss, and his associated companies, have been slapped with a record $1.55 million in fines after he confiscated workers’ bank cards, forced them to work 70-hour weeks and made them sleep in a cubicle at one of his shops.
Sukhdev Singh, who owned four Liquor Centre stores, will have to pay $415,800 himself within 14 days. The companies which ran the stores have to pay up $1.138m. Singh also received the longest-ever banning order from operating a company, a three-year term starting in January.
Judge Kathryn Beck ruled that while the company shareholdings were now in Singh’s wife, brother and sister-in-law’s names, he was the “controlling mind” of a deliberate and systemic breach of labour laws.
The head of the Labour Inspectorate, Stu Lumsden, said the case “really is modern-day slavery” and hailed it as the first big result for the new Migrant Exploitation team, formed two years ago. “People were jumping up and down for joy: we are really pleased with this outcome.”
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The Migrant Exploitation team – which has other major cases in the pipeline – conducted an 11-month investigation in Singh’s business.
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