Liquor store owner appeals $100k fine
An Auckland liquor store owner has appealed a $100,000 fine for failing to pay seven migrant workers their minimum wage and holiday pay entitlements.
Last year, the Employment Relations Authority ordered Shalini Ltd, whose sole owner and director is Venu Mohan Reddy Beerapu, to pay $96,542 in wage and holiday pay arrears and a $100,000 fine for exploiting seven migrant workers.
A Labour Inspectorate investigation in 2017 found the migrants consistently worked long hours without pay and two of them also rented accommodation from Beerapu.
Shalini’s lawyer, Michael Keall, said the company had repaid three employees and had till the middle of the year to pay the remaining four workers.
The Labour Inspectorate confirmed the workers had been paid their wage arrears.
While Beerapu agreed to pay arrears, he appealed the authority’s $100,000 fine for breaches of the Minimum Wage Act and Holidays Act and applied for a stay on the payment until the appeal had been heard by the Employment Court.
The stay was granted in November on the condition that he pay the court $30,000 by December 6.
However, he was unable to pay the $30,000 and the stay lapsed.
Keall said Beerapu was at ‘‘the mercy of the Employment Court’’ which will will hear his appeal on February 24.
Beerapu said he was paying the wages ‘‘correctly and promptly’’ and had no comment to make on the appeal.
Companies Office records show Beerapu is a shareholder in three other companies, Janaki Ltd, Ashwin Ltd and Beerapu Ltd.
All four companies, including Shalini Ltd, had the same registered address in Auckland’s suburb of Epsom.
Beerapu’s Epsom house had a capital value of $1.8 million.