A South Auckland liquor store owner has been ordered to pay over $46,000 after exploiting a migrant worker.
Basra and Khella Limited, trading as Super Liquor Papatoetoe, was ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to pay $18,000 in penalties and more than $28,000 in arrears to the former worker.
The breaches include more than $25,000 in unpaid wages, and more than $3,000 in unpaid holidays and leave allowances.
The worker was commuting six days a week from the North Shore to the Papatoetoe store for work, where shifts would regularly go for 12 hours and were often not paid in full.
Inaccurate record keeping from Basra and Khella’s sole director and employer, Ravinda Basra, meant the determination relied on the worker’s testimony along with his public transport records, time stamped photographs and purchase receipts from neighbouring businesses to prove his claims.
“This is not the first time the inspectorate has brought alternative evidence like this to show an employer’s exploitative actions, especially where an absence of accurate wage and time records has occurred,” said labour inspectorate sector lead Loua Ward.
“The labour inspectorate are working with bottle store franchisors to stamp our exploitation in this industry. Since these breaches occurred in 2017 and 2018, Super Liquor have taken significant steps to improve their compliance with employment minimum standards.
“We expect other franchises and brands to follow Super Liquor’s lead, and do more to stop exploitation before it happens in their stores.”
The inspectorate encourages any workers who think they are being exploited to contact the MBIE Contact Centre on 0800 20 90 20.
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