Workers were paying up to $60,000 before even boarding a plane
New Zealand's Employment Court just closed a loophole that let employers sidestep the country's ban on charging workers for jobs.
In a judgment handed down on October 8, 2026, a three-judge Full Court ruled that section 12A of the Wages Protection Act 1983 applies to payments made overseas - not just within New Zealand. The provision bans employers, or anyone acting on their behalf, from seeking or receiving any "premium" in connection with a person's employment.
Until now, the reach of that ban had been contested. A 2003 Employment Court decision, Mehta v Elliott, held that a premium paid offshore fell outside the statute, giving weight to the legal presumption against extraterritoriality - the idea that domestic laws do not ordinarily reach beyond a country's borders. Some Employment Relations Authority decisions followed that reasoning. Others did not.
The Full Court was convened to settle the split. Two proceedings - one brought by a Labour Inspector against Top Produce Limited, the other by four workers against separate employer parties - had both raised the same preliminary question. Three interveners were granted leave to appear: the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Workers First Union, and Community Law Centres Aotearoa.
The evidence before the court painted what it called an "alarming" picture of migrant worker exploitation.
Migrant workers were routinely paying between $10,000 and $60,000 each -...
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