Restaurant owner jailed after workers ripped off
Judge slams couple for the conditions they imposed on five Filipino chefs
An Auckland restaurateur has been sentenced to 26 months’ jail and ordered to pay $7200, and her husband to eight months’ home detention and to pay the same amount in reparation over immigration and exploitation charges.
The charges of exploitation and providing false or misleading information related to five Filipino employees they sponsored to come to New Zealand.
Virgil and Luisito Balajadia, who had both Filipino and New Zealand citizenship, and their restaurant, 3 Kings Food, earlier were each found guilty at the Auckland District Court of two charges of exploitation under the Immigration Act 2009.
During sentencing, the judge said the victims’ conditions were not far removed from modern-day slavery.
Virgil Balajadia, also known as Gie, was convicted of five charges of providing false and misleading information, two of them jointly with her husband, to Immigration New Zealand (INZ).
The information included misleading individual employment agreements used in visa applications.
Virgil Balajadia was sentenced at the Auckland District Court yesterday.
“You betrayed the trust of the victims who were strangers to this country and believed that you had their best interests at heart,” Judge Nevin Dawson said.
INZ assistant general manager Peter Devoy said the case came to light after the victim named in the exploitation charges reported his plight to the Philippines Consulate.
The employee worked for the pair from April 2014 to July 2015, and claimed to have consistently worked at least 10 hours per day, six days a week, without breaks.
He was paid, at most, for 40 hours per week, and did not receive any payment for the final three and a half months he worked at the restaurant in Birkenhead.
The victim also had to pay the pair $150 per week to live in a makeshift room in their garage.
“This employee was living at the defendants’ house and was taken to the restaurant by the owners every morning and then back to their house at night. He was told he would be reported to the police and sent home if he did not perform well in his job,” Devoy said.
“He could only leave the house for short periods of time and cleaned the defendants’ house on Mondays when the restaurant was closed.”
Labour Inspectorate calculations estimated the victim had been underpaid by about $15,000 in wages, plus $2000 less than the minimum wage and was owed $5000 in holiday pay.
INZ approved visas for five victims — all chefs from the Philippines — after receiving offers of employment, letters of support and job descriptions for them to work at the restaurant.
Contracted to work a minimum of 30 hours per week at $16 an hour, all were either not paid or paid for far fewer hours than they worked. Only one is still in New Zealand on a valid visa to work for another employer.
Devoy said the prosecution sent a message that migrant exploitation would not be tolerated: “We encourage anyone being forced to work in New Zealand illegally for less than the minimum wage and/or excessive hours to contact Immigration New Zealand or the Labour Inspectorate.
“People can also contact CrimeStoppers anonymously.” Aucklanders will get a glimpse into the life of Holocaust victim Anne Frank in a visiting exhibition. Anne was 13 when she went into hiding with her family and began writing a diary about her experiences, which was published after her death and read by millions around the world. The international exhibition, includes a scale model of the house her family lived in. Holocaust Centre of New Zealand chairman Boyd Klap, himself a World War II survivor, said the stories of the Holocaust are as relevant today as ever. The exhibition opens at the Auckland War Memorial Museum today and will tour the country in the next three years.