By Gurbir Singh (Hamilton, New Zealand) 8 May, 2018:
An Indian-owned New Zealand company, contracted to CourierPost has been ordered to pay more than $37,000 for multiple breaches of employment law by the Employment Relations Authority following a Labour Inspectorate investigation.
Dhanoa Transport Limited and its sole director Arvinder Singh Dhanoa were penalised $12,000 and $4,000 respectively for breaching multiple minimum employment standards between 2015 and 2017. He was also ordered to pay employees $21,640 in wage arrears.
The affected workers were mostly recent migrants from India, and one breach included failure to pay for tasks such as preparing the vehicles for delivery which could take up to two hours every day.
A perusal of the judgment of the Employment Relations Authority (a copy of which is available with this journalist) reveals the investigation reportedly uncovered 17 breaches of the Employment Relations Act.
These breaches included failure to pay four employees minimum wages; keep wage and time records for five employees; correctly calculate and pay annual holiday pay for five employees and provide valid individual employment agreements for six employees.
According to the companies register, Dhanoa Transport Limited was registered on 17th September 2013 and primarily operates in Courier service industry,
Dhanoa himself is reported to have moved to New Zealand in 2009, and admittedly made the mistake out of ignorance, being an immigrant himself.
In spite of zero-tolerance policy of Labour Inspectorate, violations of employment law - intentionally or out of ignorance, continue unabated.
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Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand-based Freelance Feature Writer & Journalist. He can be reached at: gurbir@journalist.com