Burger King cops migrant hiring ban
The company that owns Burger King in New Zealand has been barred from hiring migrant workers for a year after underpaying a staffer.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) imposed the ban after the company breached the Minimum Wage Act 1983.
Unite Union national secretary Gerard Hehir said the company paid a salaried manager, who was a Unite member, less than minimum wage.
‘‘This is a large, high-profile corporation and shows that this is not just a problem for small restaurants and fruit pickers – it goes right across most sectors and company sizes,’’ Hehir said.
Burger King’s parent company, Antares Restaurant Group, was yesterday added to MBIE’S stand-down list for businesses that have breached minimum employment standards. It will be unable to hire migrant workers until July 17, 2019.
The ban applies to 82 of the company’s branches. The Auckland Airport restaurant is owned by another company and is unaffected.
Antares cannot support any work visa applications for the period. As a result, five employees risk losing their jobs at Burger King before the end of the year.
An MBIE spokeswoman said yesterday that those ‘‘applicants are being contacted advising of the situation and providing them with a contact at Immigration New Zealand’’.
Five more migrants yet to start were also affected, with two visa applications withdrawn and three others ‘‘given additional time to find a new job offer’’.
MBIE confirmed the stand-down was the result of an employee at Burger King New Lynn in Auckland being underpaid on three occasions.
In July, the Employment Relations Authority ordered Antares to pay a former manager, Drew Desai, $3500.
Desai was paid a salary to work 90 hours a fortnight. She told the authority her wages were so close to the minimum wage that when she was required to work overtime she was paid below the minimum wage for the hours worked.
Antares spokesman James Woodbridge said the group, which employs about 2000 people across its Burger King restaurants, would amend its processes. Salaried restaurant staff would be required to clock in and out as a result of the authority’s decision.
However, Antares was ‘‘trying to understand’’ why MBIE had imposed a restriction on employing migrant workers, as Desai was ‘‘a Kiwi and not on a work visa’’.
‘‘We do not believe this issue should have any bearing on people’s ability to obtain work visas in New Zealand and we are in discussions with the ministry to understand their perspective.’’
The MBIE spokeswoman said Kiwi workers were protected by the employment standards’ regulatory regime, while recruiting migrant workers was an ‘‘additional privilege’’ for employers.
‘‘We are putting constraints on that to ensure that non-compliant employers can’t have ready access to the international labour market,’’ she said.
Hehir said the breach highlighted a ‘‘massive wage theft problem’’ in which migrant workers were the most vulnerable to exploitation.
Unite would work with Immigration NZ and other employers to find alternative jobs for the 10 people unable to begin or continue work at Burger King.
‘‘These types of workers should not suffer exploitation and then be punished for it along with the employer who exploited them,’’ Hehir said.