By Gurbir Singh (Hamilton,New Zealand),16 March,2018:
Failure to comply with New Zealand employment laws has proved costly for an Indian restaurant chain that employs 120 staff across 22 restaurants throughout the country.
Satish Shetty sole director and shareholder, Shamiana Limited and Shamiana Enterprises Limited, has been fined $41,000 in penalties for several breaches to employment law.
According to the New Zealand Labour Inspectorate, Shetty failed to pay staff minimum wage and holiday pay, as well as keep correct employment agreements.
In a media release this morning, Labour Inspectorate regional manager, David Milne said, “We’ve had several complaints dating back to August 2015 of Mr Shetty not upholding his staffs basic employment rights.”
“It was surprising that even after several complaints to the Inspectorate; Mr Shetty was not deterred from underpaying his staff. One of the breaches uncovered was for unpaid work trials for staff – a practise that’s illegal under New Zealand employment law,” Milne added.
These repeat breaches of the law meant that Shamiana Limited and Shamiana Enterprises Limited were ordered to pay $33,000 and $18,000 respectively.
Last year, $8 million worth of property of Masala restaurant chain was forfeited in widespread tax evasion, immigration and exploitation offences related to four workers in their Auckland restaurants.
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Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand-based freelance Feature Writer & Journalist. Readers can contact him at: gurbir@journalist.com